AEO Days on the V-Force

Well Mr Cunnane, you may tell your fellow junior officers that I expect my officers to stand as I come into a room

When I arrived at No 232 Operational Conversion Unit at RAF Gaydon, near Leamington Spa, in May 1960, the V Force was still the pride and joy of the RAF and its operations were very secret. The Valiant  had been the first of three V bombers to enter RAF service – at Gaydon in January 1955. The second V bomber, the Vulcan, entered service at No 230 OCU at RAF Finningley in May 1957, and the third, the Victor, arrived at Gaydon in November the same year. The Vulcan squadrons were allocated to No 1 Group, with its headquarters in a delightful old country house at Bawtry; the Victor and Valiants squadrons were, with one exception, part of No 3 Group, headquarters at RAF Mildenhall.

In some ways the V Force was modelled on the USAF’s Strategic Air Force. RAF Bomber Command had decided that only the very best pilots, navigators and air electronics officers were fit to be employed. There was a mystique about flying the so-called ‘big jets’. In particular the captain and co-pilot of a V Bomber had to have spent a considerable number of years flying Canberra light bombers. However by 1960 many of the RAF’s most experienced pilots, those who had stayed on after the end of the war, were reaching the end of their flying careers and so gradually first-tourist pilots straight out of flying training were introduced with the aim of qualifying them to take over as captains after a 3 year tour in the right hand seat. Since the bombers could be flown by the 1st pilot from the left hand seat with little or no contribution from the co-pilot, most co-pilots were not happy about being posted to the V Force. There were a number of unhappy co-pilots on my course at Gaydon.

I committed my first faux pas as an officer in my first week at Gaydon. After lunch of my second or third day I went into the crowded ante room and helped myself to a cup of coffee. The only vacant chair was facing the corridor at a table close to the entrance. I sat down, and started reading a newspaper. Then I noticed the Station Commander coming along the corridor from the Dining Room. As he entered the room I half got to my feet, but seeing that none of the other officers had made a move, other than to cast down their eyes or hide behind their newspapers, I sat back in my seat. The Station Commander walked slowly to the far end of the room, idly flicked through the pages of a magazine, then turned and walked back towards the door. As he reached me, he caught my eye and beckoned me to follow him into the lobby.

‘What’s your name?’ he asked quietly.

‘Pilot Officer Cunnane, sir.’

‘Tell me Cunnane, how long have you been commissioned?’

‘One week, sir.’

‘What did your DS teach you to do when the Station Commander comes into a room?’

I hesitated, and then made matters worse. ‘They said that some station commanders wanted officers to stand when they came into a room, while others did not. They told us to follow the lead of the more senior officers, sir.’

That, of course, was quite the wrong thing to say. Remaining seated was one thing, but half rising and then sitting back down again could be construed as an insult.

‘Well Mr Cunnane, you may tell your fellow junior officers that I expect my officers to stand as I come into a room.’

With that he swept out of the Mess. I returned to my seat in the ante room and sat down, probably red-faced. No-one asked me what had been said but I am sure everyone in the room had seen what had happened. A few days later, when I and my fellow course members signed Officers’ Confidential Orders in the Adjutant’s Office for the very first time in our careers, I could not fail to notice the most recent order, added that very day, which spelled out the Station Commander’s requirements about standing when he entered a room.

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