A New Recruit
Date: 6th MAY 1971
What a day today has been. I set off from the train station at 10am this morning. My Mum and Dad and sister saw me off. My Dad still thinks I won't like the forces and will be back home in a few weeks. I'll show him.
Some of the lads who were at the CIO on Tuesday were on the train, so I joined them. We got on quite well and soon got to know each others names. There was Simmo, who was going to be a bandsman, Stuart , who wanted to be an airframe fitter and Mick was going to be a cook.
It wasn't long before we pulled into Newark station were we all got off. I was surprised to see a lot more blokes heading towards the exit, who looked like they were joining too.
In the courtyard outside was an RAF bus and a rather stern looking CPL.
"Anyone for Swinderby on the bus, Pronto." he was bawling. We all piled on and about 20mins later we were going through the gates of RAF Recruit training station Swinderby. We were herded into a large building called "Reception Centre." and into a large room, a bit like a lecture theatre. An officer then welcomed us to Swinderby and went through a list of do and dont's and then he handed over to a Sergeant. He called out our names for roll call and told us which flights we would be in. I was in "B" flight. There were 20 recruits to each flight. A,B and C. After that, we had to line up outside in our flights were we got introduced to our corporal. Ours was called Cpl Jones.
We were marched to our barracks were we had to find a bunk and unpack. Cpl Jones gave us 10 mins to do this before he came in bawling at us to line up outside. We were marched to the mess were we had a meal and then marched back to the barracks. Cpl Jones then set us the task of cleaning our dorm up ready for first inspection at 8 pm. We did our best but it wasn't up to scratch when he inspected it so we had to get it right by 9pm because lights out was at 9.15. The room was better at 9 but according to Cpl Jones was still a shitheap and we'll all have to do better tomorrow.
Reveille at 6.30am.
More later.
What a day today has been. I set off from the train station at 10am this morning. My Mum and Dad and sister saw me off. My Dad still thinks I won't like the forces and will be back home in a few weeks. I'll show him.
Some of the lads who were at the CIO on Tuesday were on the train, so I joined them. We got on quite well and soon got to know each others names. There was Simmo, who was going to be a bandsman, Stuart , who wanted to be an airframe fitter and Mick was going to be a cook.
It wasn't long before we pulled into Newark station were we all got off. I was surprised to see a lot more blokes heading towards the exit, who looked like they were joining too.
In the courtyard outside was an RAF bus and a rather stern looking CPL.
"Anyone for Swinderby on the bus, Pronto." he was bawling. We all piled on and about 20mins later we were going through the gates of RAF Recruit training station Swinderby. We were herded into a large building called "Reception Centre." and into a large room, a bit like a lecture theatre. An officer then welcomed us to Swinderby and went through a list of do and dont's and then he handed over to a Sergeant. He called out our names for roll call and told us which flights we would be in. I was in "B" flight. There were 20 recruits to each flight. A,B and C. After that, we had to line up outside in our flights were we got introduced to our corporal. Ours was called Cpl Jones.
We were marched to our barracks were we had to find a bunk and unpack. Cpl Jones gave us 10 mins to do this before he came in bawling at us to line up outside. We were marched to the mess were we had a meal and then marched back to the barracks. Cpl Jones then set us the task of cleaning our dorm up ready for first inspection at 8 pm. We did our best but it wasn't up to scratch when he inspected it so we had to get it right by 9pm because lights out was at 9.15. The room was better at 9 but according to Cpl Jones was still a shitheap and we'll all have to do better tomorrow.
Reveille at 6.30am.
More later.
posted by Freddy at 9:30 PM
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