3 Group Trappers - Tony Cunnane's Life and Times

In my last few days at Mildenhall in January 1966 I was involved in a staff meeting that was to have a very strange aftermath nine years later.

Down the corridor from my office was the training empire, a secretive group of Staff Officers whose routine job was to monitor the professional progress of all Victor aircrew from squadron commanders down to the newest co-pilots just out of basic training. To my surprise I was asked to join them, allegedly in my capacity as the P2 staff officer, to sit in on a meeting where they had to decide on who was going to replace a retiring officer in the post of Officer Commanding No 3 Group Standardisation Unit – also known as The Trappers. 3GSU was responsible for monitoring and examining the flying standards of all the air crew in the Group and was always commanded by a pilot (just as, in those days, all V Force captains were pilots).

I have always suspected that it was Air Vice-Marshal Smallwood, (the AOC) who told them to invite me otherwise, as an Air Electronics Officer, I would not have been invited to a meeting that was almost wholly concerned with pilots’ matters! I had virtually nothing to offer, other than my thoughts on captaincy (all Valiant and Victor rear crew had opinions about captains), but it was, nevertheless, extremely interesting.

There were two candidates for the job. They were not at the meeting because the RAF didn’t interview candidates for jobs – they appointed them! I doubt if they knew, officially, that they were candidates but they, and probably one or two others, must have thought they were in with a chance.

Two disparate groups of staff officers were at loggerheads. One group wanted the young, newly-promoted General List squadron leader to be given the job. A General List squadron leader was reckoned by the RAF to have potential to reach the highest ranks in the Service  – but to progress to the next rank they had to complete a flying appointment in rank and also what was called a command appointment. The OC 3GSU appointment ticked both boxes. General List officers’ careers were monitored closely by the Air Secretary’s department in London.

The second  group of staff officers wanted to appoint a much older Supplementary List squadron leader with lots of experience of flying both the Valiant and Victor. Supplementary List squadron leaders were flight lieutenants who had deserved their promotion because of what they had done in the past, but who were not thought likely to become suitable for any further promotion. (Those who know about these matters, will realise that the Supplementary List as far as aircrew were concerned, eventually became the Specialist Aircrew category – but that’s altogether another story!)

It was a classic case of 'the deserving young but inexperienced', versus 'the very experienced but ageing'. Eventually the meeting was adjourned so that further advice could be solicited from higher authority. Unfortunately, and sorry to disappoint you, I never found out how that problem was resolved because a few days later I left Mildenhall to start my pilot training.

My reason for including this anecdote in the story of my own RAF career is that nine years later I was, presumably, the subject of a similar meeting before I was appointed OC the Victor Standardisation Unit (click here for that story)

If you enjoyed this story you might also like my piece about The Peter Principle - click here.