Tornado GR.1

Panavia Tornado GR.1

Revell, 1/32

Squadron Leader Dave "Thommo" Thompson completed his shutdown checklist with a heavy sigh and looked tiredly through his canopy. Misawa was clearly an air base on a war footing. All around him were aircraft of many types from several different nations. There were machine gun nests set up against potential saboteurs and armed jeeps patrolling the perimeter on the lookout for any unwanted intruders. The occupants of those jeeps were clearly struggling to maintain an effective lookout whilst fighting against the bitter cold, made worse by the wind chill caused by travelling exposed to the elements. The radio was alive with call signs as planes queued up to land and take off. His fatigued mind wondered how he had come to be here...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had all started when 617 squadron - the world famous "Dambusters" - was chosen to go on deployment to Norway for winter exercises - the pace and tempo of an exercise was always good fun for the crews and they all looked forward to it. But some damn bloody fool in Whitehall had decided that Valentines Day would be a good day for 617 squadron to deploy for the exercise. The wives of 617, used as they were to their husbands being away for long periods at a time, were nevertheless not particularly impressed by this unnecessary disruption to their marriages. However Tommo was not a man to be denied his one guaranteed night of "marital satisfaction" that easily - particularly by some desk driving fool in the MoD. February 13th he had arranged for the kids to be looked after and he and Mrs. Thompson had gone away to a remote B&B that he knew of and spent a lovely evening together, just the two of them. Dinner by candlelight, a romantic walk in the crisp night air, then back to their room to "snuggle" under the covers...

Having worked hard the previous few days to make sure his desk was in order, he had left word at the station that he would be slightly late in that morning & so was able to have breakfast with his wife too. Thoroughly relaxed and happy at the thought that his little extra romantic effort under difficult circumstances had won him several hundred brownie points with his wife he set off for RAF Lossiemouth and a week of hard but fun flying in Norway.

When he arrived at the base he wondered at the high level of activity that greeted him. As he showed his pass at the gate, the Airman controlling the barrier told him he was to report to Group Captain Chalmers ASAP. Wondering just what was going on, his heart sank at the thought that the exercise might have been cancelled. When he got out of his car and walked into the ready room he realised that that was the least of his worries. Most of the squadrons aircrew had their eyes fixed on the TV attached to the wall. Sky News was on and as he watched he saw a kaleidoscope of images, burning buildings, crying civilians - all oriental looking. "Not another earthquake in Japan?" he thought. Then the headline ticker across the bottom of the screen told him.

"North Korea launches surprise attack on South Korea."

"Bloody hell," he said out loud, at which point most of the officers in the room turned around, having been previously unaware of their CO's presence.

"Where the bloody hell have you been Boss? Don't you know there's a bloody war on?"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Page 2 Page 3

Page created December 15, 2004