RAF Pipe Band.

[Mel1721L]

Post war Granddad was WO IC training at a base near Barnard Castle..

So had you qualified you'd have been an LfitGR, as I was, this was later changed to LtechAD, neither exist anymore, as the reduced size of the RAF has combined the GR /AD and the Airfield AF trades.
Number 1 Radio School RAF Locking has closed and moved to RAF Cosford with the Airfield trades

As for Catterick I went to the Army base once but only as far as the guard room to pick up some equipment. later I also went to RAF Catterick, which is now part of the Army Catterick. Our range was closed so we went to use theirs, I had the wonderful pleasure of marching about 50 men across the airfield to the range..
Many baby officers from the place, suddenly decided it would be the right time to go for a walk around the peri track, all on alternate sides of the road so I kept having to change sides of the troop, salute and give the eye right or left as required..

No, I would have been a Junior Technician. It was 1971. I was at RAF Locking. Distant memories now.

I did roll up at an RAF base in Germany when I was in the TA, after leaving the regular army. I was with 253 Provost Coy RMP(V). I think they were a bit worried when a whole Company of Military Police arrived, but we were only there for the cookhouse. I used to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid saluting officers.

[The Q]

No, I would have been a Junior Technician. It was 1971. I was at RAF Locking. Distant memories now.

I did roll up at an RAF base in Germany when I was in the TA, after leaving the regular army. I was with 253 Provost Coy RMP(V). I think they were a bit worried when a whole Company of Military Police arrived, but we were only there for the cookhouse. I used to go to extraordinary lengths to avoid saluting officers.

Yes you would have been a Junior Technician as I was when I qualified in 1976, But your trade would have been LfitGR..

The Rank, Junior Technician, doesn't exist any more, it's now down graded to Senior Aircraftsman...

[Mel1721L]

Yes you would have been a Junior Technician as I was when I qualified in 1976, But your trade would have been LfitGR..

The Rank, Junior Technician, doesn't exist any more, it's now down graded to Senior Aircraftsman...

I've seen airmen with Lance Jack stripes. Is that only Rockapes though?

[The Q]

I've seen airmen with Lance Jack stripes. Is that only Rockapes though?

That would be correct..

[Jacques]

That would be correct..

Rock Apes? Is that the RAF Regt?

Just curious. Had the opportunity to play with them when i was posted at Goose Bay in Canada around 1990 - 93.

[The Q]

Rock Apes? Is that the RAF Regt?

Just curious. Had the opportunity to play with them when i was posted at Goose Bay in Canada around 1990 - 93.

Yes that's one of the less rude nicknames for the RAF Regt , just about every trade has some sort of nickname, Engines were Sooties, my trade Electronics (RADAR in my case) were fairies..

[Jacques]

Yes that's one of the less rude nicknames for the RAF Regt , just about every trade has some sort of nickname, Engines were Sooties, my trade Electronics (RADAR in my case) were fairies..

Thanks. When the RAF Regt was at Goose Bay and without supervision, it seemed they had turned drinking and fighting among themselves into a daily event. In the RCAF we used similar terms like rigger for air frame techs and fitter for engine techs. They used to call mp's meatheads until the govt cut our budget in '83 it was changed to bone-heads.

[Riverkilt]

Arthur Mackie gave me permission to wear the RAF tartan in honor of my father's RAF service in 1942. A Montana boy come to defend the homeland. He flew Hurricanes and Spitfires and was on the Dieppe Raid.

Somewhere along the line also picked up a pic of one of the RAF pipe bands...like how they make the gray kilt hose work.

[Tomo]

The piper at my first wedding was an ex-RAF piper and had previously piped for Maggie Thatcher, John Major, Ronald Reagan and a host of others. I'd have to dig our some old photos to see if he wore RAF tartan or not (it was certainly a pale blue - so could have been).

[imrichmond]

In the military, pipers have, since the modern military piper's uniform was introduced in the 1840s, had doublets trimmed with white piping, while the Pipe Major's doublet is edged with gold (sometimes silver) 1/2 inch metallic lace in addition to the white piping.

Civilian pipe bands have long followed this custom.

For whatever reason, at some point (by the 1970s anyhow) some civilian Pipe Bands began using the ornate laced Pipe Major's doublets for the entire band. But I can't recall having seen a military Pipe Band do that, before seeing this RAF band.

This is not entirely true, at least, not for all highland regiments. While perusing the introductory material in a copy of the original 1954 edition of the "Scots Guards Standard Settings of Pipe Music" which I recently acquired, I came across the following description of the pipers' doublets:

"The full dress doublet is of blue cloth with silver edgings and chevrons. Silver buttons are spaced in threes to make the doublet appear double-breasted. Pipers' shoulder straps and collars are plain except for silver edging and a central silver line and button on the latter.
The Pipe-Major has a doublet with wider and heavier silver edging..."

Judging by the black and white photos included in this volume, the only real difference between the pipers' doublets and the pipe major's, aside from marks of rank, is the wider silver edging that runs around the top of the pipe major's collar and continues in a double line down the centre of the doublet. The wider edging does not appear on the pipe major's shoulder straps or on his tassets, which appear identical to those of the pipers' doublets.

It may be that the Scots Guards are an exception in this regard.