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There were, as I recall, three officers sitting in judgement on me: Wing Commander John Dyer, who was in charge of the Administrative Wing and was the Station Commander’s representative, one officer from CFS whose name now escapes me but who was presumably looking after the Commandant’s interests, and Tim Miller, Leader of the Red Arrows. One person I fully expected to be a member of the Board in his professional capacity was missing, the Command Public Relations Officer, Keith Ansell, a professional civil servant employed in the Government Information Service. Keith had been the Command PRO in 1970 when I had a short story broadcast on the BBC; he had had to get MoD approval for my story to be transmitted. I had been looking forward to meeting Keith again and so I telephoned him shortly after my interview board and expressed my surprise at his absence. He told me that he had been given the wrong date for the board and he thought it had been done deliberately so that he could not have any input into the proceedings – an example of the RAF not entirely trusting the Civil Service. Discreet enquiries I made after I had taken up the post confirmed that Keith had indeed deliberately been kept off the appointment board.
I was scrutinised intently by the interrogators before being invited to sit down. I felt rather like the little boy in the W F Yeames painting that had so fascinated me at St James’ School in 1944. I had prepared answers to questions about the Red Arrows. I would explain, if the opportunity arose, that I had flown with the Team, admittedly just for one familiarisation sortie with the legendary Ray Hanna back in 1967 when I was a student on the Central Flying School instructors’ course. That, of course, did not necessarily fit me for the job but at least it showed I had had an interest in the Team – albeit 22 years earlier! As it happened, I knew quite a bit about the history of RAF Scampton from my own general service knowledge, and I could talk at length about the Central Flying School because I was one of its graduates. There were questions that I wanted to ask the panel, given the opportunity. I wanted clarification on exactly what the job entailed; I needed to reiterate what I had put in my letter about not wanting to deal with irate members of the public on the thorny subject of low flying aircraft; I wanted reassurance about the difficulties of working for three masters at the same time. I wanted many things but my mind went blank as soon as I sat down and Squadron Leader Tim Miller launched his opening salvo.
"Why do you think you’re the right person to be the Red Arrows’ Public Relations Officer?"
For a few seconds, I stared blankly at Tim and I vividly remember the quickening of the heart beat and the rise in temperature that most people experience when caught out unexpectedly. I had a little panic. I had pondered that very question in the weeks between first hearing about the job and being invited for the interview but I had never got around to thinking about the answer. Was I really the right person? Surely the public relations officer for the world’s premier aerobatic display team should be young and – well – female? Be that as it may, I had no answer ready for Tim’s question and I had to resort to waffle. It must have been obvious to the members of the Interview Board that they had scored first. It was not a good start. At the age of 53 and having already served in the RAF for 36 years, I was applying for a new job but I had dismally failed to heed the advice I had given to countless young people and once again I had not prepared myself properly for the interview.
I cannot now remember anything more about the interview but a few days later I had a letter from Mrs Fleckney congratulating me and stating that I was ‘the successful candidate’ and asking when I could start. There was a form attached to the letter which had to be signed by my current Boss certifying that he was willing to let me go. That forced me into action; I could not delay any longer telling John McMinn what I was planning to do. The Group Captain was indeed very hurt when I told him that I would be leaving Sealand and I genuinely felt guilty about the way I had kept him in the dark about my plans.
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