Things at school were again just average; my reports were average, and my exams revealed nothing above average either. I had no girlfriend until I joined the navy, and I didn’t expect to be anyone special at the time I joined.
I was recruited of my own volition at a visit to the Careers Office, in the latter part of 1975. The Careers Office was then situated in London (Holborn). I did enough in Maths and English tests to become an Air Mechanic and was informed that I would join HMS Ganges on January 13th 1976. Artificers or Tiffs or Tiffees who joined had the brains apparently, (well they all had O levels or highers) and would go to FISHGUARD, previously doing all there skill training at Arbroath before going into the Field. They had better kit than us Able rates or Abees and even wore caps with peaks like Petty Officers which they would eventually become; ahead of the likes of me.
Anyway, one day, I thought - but 160,000 boys who went through the gates as boys and marched out as men, from its inception as a Royal Navy Training Establishment in 1905 to its closure in April of 1976, So I was, I think, one of the last batches of young men to pass out of that establishment.
I was sixteen years old in January 1976 and by the time I did pass out of those gates of that Ipswich establishment, I had learned how to shave, dress properly in uniform and behave like a reasonable above average sailor.
Now I was beginning to feel part of something !
I knew that naval aviation had begun at Lee-on-Solent and it was as early as 1917 when the Royal Naval Air Service, (RNAS), opened the Naval Seaplane Training School —the RNAS then merged with the Army's Royal Flying Corps in 1918 and this became the Royal Air Force.
So to be told, I was joining the Fleet Air Arm, which had been formed in 1924 as an organisational unit of the Royal Air Force, then not coming under the direct control of the Admiralty until mid-1939, had some history and excitement for a young lad like me.
I always loved history and studied various episodes of it during my lifetime and even taught GCSE History in the Royal Navy when I was in my late thirties.
But for the now, in March of 1976 -I was doing weekly duties from the guardroom, just inside the main gates of HMS Daedalus. Every couple of weeks we would be able to hang out at the the 'base social club', (which was on the base itself); going outside the gates was called "going ashore" and we all held "station cards" which showed how old we were and when we were expected back through the gates -but that meant having the chance of getting a girlfriend, which still hadn't managed was not going to happen.
I was still not able to legally drink beer and so us "Juniors", as I said above had to make do with a can a coke from the automat, (because we couldn't go to the bar), or get an older shipmate to get one for us. And we watched those older guys dance away and perform their magic. They had a great time when they were not required to study and really let their hair down, what they had of it anyway.
Being 17 was a bit of disadvantage when looking for some female company - "fancy a drink", would be a bit of flat chat up line and as I said, we were pretty much confined to the base unless we could go on a bit of leave.
Listening to those older guys, they had brilliant chat up lines - like - Do you know what would look good on my room floor? - I'll let you guess that one.
One particular airman was on the gate every time you went through it and it appeared he was "back -classed" a few times and ended up as permanent gate sentry. He was an accident waiting to happen and did so many things that would ground an aircraft or bring them down. I recall that he had the nickname "Plank" a term reserved for dull individuals and he enjoyed being called "Naval Airman Plank". I would meet him again in later naval episodes.
Me, I was just a silly youth, larking around with my oppos (mates), drinking Coca Cola or some other soft drink, looking envious at the WRNS with the older chaps, because we were probably just too young and of course we were afraid to talk to anything of the opposite sex anyway - gosh I was a late developer.
In the social club, we would listen to the sounds of 1976 such as Hot Chocolate's - You Sexy Thing - Silly Love Songs by Wings and KC and the Sunshine Band's - That's the way I like it and I guess at that age, that is the way we liked it:)
Anyway, I was becoming part of naval history at this my Part Two and Three training base, and actually, I developed a liking for the new reincarnation of the Beatles and happy to sing and dream about those "silly love songs".
Now HMS Daedalus had been previously been renamed HMS Ariel in year of my birth, 1959. There were now, Permanent hangars, like Dunning Hangar (the first Sailor pilot to do a deck landing), workshops, similarly named and accommodation, which were all named after Admirals of the Fleet; (mine was Keppel block. Keppel saw action in command of various ships, including the fourth-rate Maidstone, during the War of the Austrian Succession; (we had to learn all this stuff really).
There was some active units present in that year as well the Hovercraft Unit, then stationed in the Lee On Solent within the airfield which was heavily operational then as well.
By the time I got there, Daedalus was still looking bright and shiny, mainly because we cleaned it daily on those duties or those under punishment, who had done something against the rules and had certain privileges withdrawn would do the most polishing and cleaning for nine days or five days solid. Dependent upon what the sentence dished out at 'Commanders Table' where they would march in when their name was shouted out and then the Commander would listen to the thing that the poor lad had done before deciding to let him off or punish the rating with stoppage of leave, stoppage of pay or extra work duties decided.
The sailors marched around as classes and lived in the blocks for their fourteen weeks of training. 'Divisions', (a formal parade held on special occasions), were held quite regularly, as we had to keep up our parade drill and even guard training with rifles had to be done too.
I
Eventually, the fourteen weeks went by - we still had to do "kit musters" and were issued diagrams showing how kit was to be laid out on the bed.
Some who couldn't complete the training or even didn't keep good kit were sent home and dismissed from the service and that meant any mates you had made were now a memory.
Those days and nights of study, expected from all who were being trained created a pressure cooker of excitement and worry if you had to do a resit. For those who went through that episode in their early career paths enough was enough - (training and study that was) - others, like me would find more studious times ahead.
At HMS Daedalus, I was selected as a Super SAM (Specially Selected Air Mechanic) or SSAM for short and I was informed that I would have to stay behind when my classmates all left the establishment to take up their next phase of training on "real aircraft" having "real pilots" and doing "real work". I also won the "top tech" prize which made me top of the class and I won a book a token!
Now, I had to stay behind, because, the RN staff who taught me, saw something in me that was needed to be improved and that was my Mathematics and English. So I had a week to study and retake the tests, you remember those, that I had taken originally in London, when I joined up in that January influx?
Now the SSAM status was a route to Petty Officer and without a good result in the Naval Maths and English Tests (NAMET), a rating (that was me, here I considered my self "rateless"), would be disqualified from that promotion route and so the training staff did me a favour - by keeping me behind - because when I retook the tests, I had a better pass than when I took them at the London recruitment centre.
So NAMET was scored on a zero (being an O level pass) to nine. Where you were considered to be a bit of numbskull the higher you went . NAMET 9-9 meant you would probably never go further than Leading Hand - one rate above able rate.
At this time in when I left Ganges, I had a NAMET of 6-3 which meant, I had a 6 in English and 3 in Maths. When I left Daedalus and after the retake I scored 3-2 - which meant I had the NAMET to go for Petty Officer as what they called a Mechanician - this was equivalent to an Artificer Apprentice or a Tiffee.
POEM
TITLE: Remembering HMS DAEDALUS
Once there was a way, our youth decided,
In our own decisions, we all confided.
To join the forces in sailed on seas,
Those Ganges A Bees and even Fishguard Tiff-ees
When onto Dunning, Keppel and the Tiffs to Arbroath,
We knew the tests were never a loaf!
But in those brilliant days, I entered rateless
When I walked through the Gates at HMS Daedalus.
The training staff kept me back once done; like a magnet,
Because, such fun; I had only has 6-3 NAMET.
A favour, I didn’t at the time suppose,
Made me a “course late arrival” at RNAS Culdrose
Next - Part Four Training at the Cornish Establishment