The end of the beginning - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

Written in early April 2001 (note the date carefully when reading this page!!)

How long will the Red Arrows continue to fly? How long will Scampton remain open? Those are questions that my successor will have to deal with. There used to be a joke in the 1960s that whenever the RAF spent a lot of money renovating one of its stations, that station would soon close; at that time Acklington and Chivenor, flying training schools at opposite ends of England, were just two examples that seemed to prove the rule. But times have changed. The fact that Scampton has been reopened and had a lot of money spent on it neither suggests it will soon close again nor guarantee that it will survive.

The magnificent Scampton Officers’ Mess had over £1 million spent on it just to renovate the roof after a great storm in the early 1990s flooded most of the upper floor. More large sums of money were spent on the Mess and the Station soon afterwards to fit it for a royal visit. The Officers’ Mess is now sadly derelict through years of neglect and there are, as far as I know, no plans to reopen it. The Airmen’s Mess, the former operations building where the Dam Busters’ raid and many others were briefed, was condemned in the early 1990s when it was found to be overrun by cockroaches. There was no money left to  decontaminate it and so that historic building is also lying empty. The problem with Scampton is that it is in an unfashionable part of the country and no-one wants to buy the estate. Had a suitable buyer come forward during the five years the Red Arrows were based at Cranwell, and indeed great efforts were made to find one, I have little doubt that the base would have been sold off.

I now read stories in some newspapers that the RAF may soon have to close at least one more main airfield so that real estate can be sold off. Names being bandied around are Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, its near neighbour Lyneham, and St Mawgan in Cornwall.  I no longer have inside information so I cannot tell if the stories are true, are wrong, or are merely spin, but I recognise the signs.

And so the story of my 47 years in uniform comes to its end.

I thought it would be a wrench having to retire but it has been nothing of the sort. I moved out of Lincolnshire and came back to Wakefield, which I have always considered my ‘home town’. I now find that my time is so fully occupied that I cannot imagine how I ever found time to go to work.

Joy of joys, I am now entitled to a Senior Citizen’s Metro Bus and Train Pass which allows me to travel anywhere within West Yorkshire for the princely sum of 20p. Wakefield has changed of course but the people are as friendly as ever and all my old haunts are still here. The Pennines are now visible on most days, not just two or three days a month and they no longer form a topic of conversation. The Admiral Duncan pub is still there but the fish and chip shop, the Co-op and both the ‘little’ and ‘big’ schools have disappeared.

Bridge 58 of 99, the historic railway viaduct on the East Coast Main Line Leeds spur between Sandal and Wakefield, is still there and, thanks to my Metro Pass, I have passed over the bridge more times in the last few months than I ever did as a child. My first grammar school, QEGS, is still there, naturally, and my old form room windows can still be seen from the main road. I have not yet asked to go inside but I will one day, for old times’ sake. The school uniform is now worn differently;  today there seems to be no cap so the boys cannot raise them when they greet ladies, and shirt tails are mostly worn outside the trousers. That would have resulted in a visit to the Head Master in my day had anyone had the temerity to do it!

I left RAF Scampton for the final time mid-morning on 14 March 2001. The Red Arrows were away; my replacement was not there – she had let it be known that she did not want, or require, a handover from me. I just collected my belongings and left the station without saying goodbye to the few folk who were there. When I got home 10 minutes later I took off my RAF uniform for the very last time. Later that day I was interviewed at home in Lincolnshire by Yorkshire TV. They wanted to know about the book about my time with the Red Arrows that I was writing.

PS March 2012. I never returned to the Red Arrows, or Scampton, or Cranwell, or any other stations or squadrons I served on. Nothing personal but I have never liked reunions and I've never been to one.

The End