Born and raised in the North East of Scotland in the county of Moray; I joined the Royal Air Force upon leaving school and served for 28 years before applying for Premature Voluntary Release (PVR). Trained in the Communications disciplines of Teleprinter/Radio/Morse and Computerised Message switching operations, I also specialised in the management of Cryptographic equipment and codes. I either worked in, supervised shifts or managed the day-to-day running of Communication Centres both home and abroad with the early career exception of working in a Computer Bureau for 3 years.
Overseas postings included the Island of Masirah off the coast of Oman; The Caves of Maastricht, Holland (living in Liege, Belguim); Gibraltar; Bahrain; New Zealand and 5 years of roulement to Aviano Air Force base, Italy.
UK postings including Training, Excercise and Detachments in no particular order: RAF Cosford, STCOC RAF High Wycombe, RAF West Drayton, 2 Signals Unit RAF Stanbridge, 6 Signals Unit RAF Rudloe Manor, RAF Bawdsey, UKRAOC RAF High Wycombe, HMS Warrior Northwood, 840 Signals Unit Lindholme, RAF Locking, UKNDA Thatcham, RAF Scampton, RAF Waddington, RAF Hereford, RAF Cottesmore, RAF Coningsby
I took part in:-
Operation Burberry / Operation Deny Flight / Operation Deliberate Force / Operation Joint Endeavour / Operation Jural
Exercise Longlook (Exchange posting with the Royal New Zealand Air Force) and Exercise Blackbird (RNZAF 3 Sqn Iriquous Mountain flying in the Southern Alps)
Photographs:-
RAF West Drayton – L1 Building – Room12
AOCinC 18 Group Commendation – Queens Birthday Honours 1989
The photograph of the Grumman A6E-TRAM was taken from the rear of a VC10 Tanker above a ‘Middle Eastern country’ during Operation Jural. I later made a 1/32 model of the aircraft using a basic kit with some additional markings. See my Modelling section.
My last flight back from Aviano Air Base, Italy and diverted into Geilenkerchen, Germany.
Medals – General Service Medal (GSM) with bar Air Operations Iraq – NATO Medal with bar Former Yugoslavia – Long Service and Good Conduct Medal (LSGCM)
Presentation of a slate plaque of the Fist & Sparks badge to the Training School, 100 years to the day after it was promulgated for wear 1918 -2018. I was invited as the Trade Group 11 Representative on the day (4th left)
Having left the RAF after 28 years, I went contracting with HSBC Bank within their IT Department in Sheffield and became involved in several major projects over the course of 8 years. I headed up the Implementation desk that upgraded the Network Access Cabinets of some 1600+ branches from Analogue to a Digital capablility. The upgrade of the bandwidth into those branches and head offices. The upgrade of same using Cisco Routers and Switches. The upgrade of the Switches to models capable of Power over the Ethernet (POE) at their ports. The installation and migration of 22,000 Internet Protocol Telephones (IPT). The upgrade of ATMs with Cisco Routers. The migration to MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching). As a contractor I then moved to their Data Centre environment, where I managed the siting of network equipment and the cabling engineers within 2 London DCs, Liverpool DC and one in South Yorkshire. After 2 years I was TUPE’d into the company and became involved in the initial migration of equipment and services out of the Liverpool site and into a brand new, state of the art, Data Centre in West Yorkshire. Here I spent the next 9 years Project Managing the Power / Cooling / Network Connectivity and siting of servers etc., into 4 working Data Halls of 15,000sq ft each. There was the capacity for a further 2 Halls. My last year was spent within the Cryptographic department. During my time I gained the following Project Management qualifications; PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) both Foundation and Practitioner, CDCDP (Certified Data Centre Design Professional) and CTPM (Certified Telecommunications Projects Management).