Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: danny76 on September 13, 2012, 04:00:55 AM
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I love my civvy job. It means that I get to go to peoples houses, drink tea and chat, and sometimes nose around stately homes in green eyed jealousy. Just over a week ago I went to a little bungalow in a small village. The guy who opened the door was in his late 60's as was his wife, nice people, made me a cuppa whilst I began work.
Anyway, over the fire I noticed a photograph of a Boulton Paul Defiant, and mentioned that it was rare to see one, this fella said that I should speak to his dad about it. I carried on working and this old fella came in in a wheelchair, with an oxygen bottle and tubes up his nose. Little crumpled grey old chap but with absolute clarity of speech.
He explained that he had flown the Defiant in France and early Battle of Britain, that the photograph was of one of the earliest examples that they were air testing. He was one of the first pilots to fly in the night role with the new radar system and had a "fair amount of success".
He showed me pictures of his service with the US forces as they began to equip with p61's for night fighting, because he was considered a pioneer of the 'sport'.
He was awarded the Croix De Geurre and the DSO
After the war he was one of only 3 UK pilots to fly with the Confederate Air Force.
I was over an hour late for my next job, just couldn't go, his son told me he had not spoken about his experiences like that before.
What a great honour to meet the man. I even managed to take some pics on my phone with him laughing at me.
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cool story :aok Thanks for sharing!
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:salute
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:aok it's always a pleasure finding an ole gem like that gentleman to chat with. Good for you and thanks for sharing :salute
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:aok :salute
Always great to find people like that. Until a few years ago a chap I only know as Mr Brister used to visit the my place of work for his daily newspaper. Turned out he was a Lancaster bomber pilot.
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Awesome!
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(http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu108/metallldan/bpd.jpg)
(http://i638.photobucket.com/albums/uu108/metallldan/pilot-1.jpg)
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What do you do DannY?
It sounds sorta like my career but I don't get to meet old war heroes. I meet crackheads and liars. I met an able bodied guy yesterday who told me he was disabled and got mad when I pointed out that I just saw him sprint up 4 flights of stairs. He got even more irritated when I asked why do you chicago transplants think that it's a better deal to get a small check once a month for doing nothing instead of a bigger weekly paycheck in exchange for doing something.
The previous month he tried making a partial payment in the form of a couple dubs and a promise.
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I'm a chimney sweep :)
Graduated to it from dealing with the same type of social detritus as you :rolleyes:
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:salute how cool was that. :cheers:
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I'm a chimney sweep :)
Graduated to it from dealing with the same type of social detritus as you :rolleyes:
Nice, I collect for the local utility company. I wrote overpriced logic for a living until the economy sh#$* the bed. This is much more fun.
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I'm a chimney sweep :)
Graduated to it from dealing with the same type of social detritus as you :rolleyes:
So you have been out with Mary Poppins, is it true what they said about he?
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That's epic :banana:
I still think it'd be a laugh to have in AH. Great pictures!
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So you have been out with Mary Poppins, is it true what they said about he?
:huh
She's a nasty slapper. I thought I was open minded. You should see what she had me doing when she caught me out dancing on rooftops again
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Thank you for sharing Danny.
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Nice, I collect for the local utility company. I wrote overpriced logic for a living until the economy sh#$* the bed. This is much more fun.
now thats a job I would not want.
some peoples disability is not so obvious.
good story Dan :aok a rare opportunity.