On the Hill 2003 (online version)

It does not seem five minutes since I was writing my first forward to an MRS newsletter and now I am making my last contribution to OtH as SO2 MRS. The old adage that time flies when you are enjoying yourself has been most appropriate. If you have not heard I am handing over the reins as SO2 MRS to Sqn Ldr Brian Mennie.

Many of you know Brian from Kinloss and Leeming. The main challenge for the MRS over the past six months has been maintaining operational teams during the frenetic operational tempo caused by Telic and Fresco. I am pleased to say that the Service has once again risen to the challenge albeit manning has been very tight on a number of occasions. Operationally it has been another relatively quiet period with most of the jobs involving assistance to civilians. Two of the highlights include a technical job on Liathach by the Kinloss team, and a two-day search by the Stafford team in the Snowdonia area.

Alister Haveron pictured in 1968

[Photo courtesy of Ray ‘Sunshine’ Sefton]

Training has continued apace with a very successful Team Leaders Course based at Kinloss and Skye that you will read about later. Thanks to all those involved especially the troops who participated in the exercise in the Cuillin, in such lovely weather conditions !! The Winter Course started off looking like a Summer Course; however, despite some of the best Scottish weather, in the end it was ultimately very successful. Moreover, the use of the JSATC at Ballachulish as the base for the second week was also a resounding success. Unfortunately, the busy operational tempo did result in the cancellation of an ice climbing MFT exercise to Canada to train our future winter climbers - hopefully next year. On a more positive note, at the time of writing, an exercise to climb Mount McKinley in Alaska in May/June is still on the cards. Furthermore, we are awaiting a decision on whether HMS Endurance can help us with a proposed expedition to South Georgia in December this year.

Congratulations and well done to the MRS personnel who received commendations and awards in the New Years Honours list, details of which you can read about a little further on. A particular thanks and well done to Alister Haveron, who is bowing out after an amazing 35 years in the MRS. There is a tribute to Alister – ‘The Whippersnapper’ – in this edition. John Roe relinquished control of the St Athan Team in March, and is going to be replaced by ‘Ginge’ Williams. I would again like to pass on the thanks of the Service to John for his outstanding leadership of the Team. As you will also see later on we will soon be losing Bill Batson. Without pre-empting his final months as MRSCI, he has been an outstanding ambassador and mentor to the Service, and when he goes he will be sorely missed.

Other news includes the introduction, after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, of the new C3 vehicle. Furthermore, by the next newsletter the new 4-Tonner replacement programme should be almost coming to fruition. Also, the MRS HQ Flt is putting the final touches to a MRS intranet site.

This article was first published in the RAFMRS Newsletter

I would like to say a personal thank you to all members of the MRS for the outstanding hospitality, support, advice and opinion (all different and by the bucket load) I have received during my tour. I am sure all will continue to do the same for Brian. It has been my privilege to work with such dedicated and passionate individuals who selflessly give up much of their own personal time in that most noble of causes; to assist others in trouble whensoever they are asked. Keep safe on the hill and I may come ‘cap in hand’ to ask if I can guest some time.

Sqn Ldr Shane Spence, SO2 MRS

A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR

On the Sunday morning following the 50^th ‘anniversary’ at Bangor in September 1993 a meeting as held at which it was decided that it was time to create an official RAF MRS association and so the MRA was born. AVM Bob Honey agreed to be the Patron and his first action as such was to seek and receive Air Force Board endorsement of the RAF MRA. The aims of the association were then, and still are, to:-

Maintain and foster an interest in the RAFMRS, its history and achievements.

Continue the comradeship that members found in it.

Compile a register of those known to have been involved since the start of the service.

Encourage, and where appropriate arrange, reunions, and offer other events.

Record, and where appropriate publish material about the service’s past and present.

I think we can confidently state that we have met all of these aims, we have almost 300 paid up members, our annual journal On the Hill plus Newsletters keep us in touch with the current Troops, their rescues, expeds and epics! Reunions have now become an annual event and are rotated between locations to share the travelling, there is a fair proportion of “do you remember old so-and-so?” and the odd pint is quaffed. Other activities have also been organised although none has come close to Pete McGowan’s ‘Wee Walk’ from Land’s End to Cape Wrath to mark the Millennium and raise money for a Jumbulance. The register is steadily growing and contains more than 1500 names, and thanks in particular to the growth of websites plus On the Hill, there has been a considerable volume of articles published and this year will see Two Star Red, The 1943 Graham Log and Pib Pibworth’s jottings all available online at www.rafmra.org.uk

The association owes a special debt to Professor Mike Graham, the son of Des Graham our founder. Mike not only gave us his father’s medals but also made a substantial donation to our funds and thus the memorial to his father and the MRS.

New members are always welcome, membership is normally limited to those who are or have been members of the MRS. Serving personnel should contact Paul ‘Semi’ LeBon the retiring Membership Secretary and Treasurer via the Stafford MRT (Paul is posted to Stafford from Leeming between the time this is being written and publication). Retired troops can contact any member of the committee or write to Paul c/o the Stafford MRT at Stafford, ST18 0AQ.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Brian Canfer

Chairman RAFMRA 01743 352173 sarmanuk@onetel.net.uk

Allied websites are www.rafmra.org http://www.firbeckfive.fsnet.co.uk

www.unity.edu/facultypages/womersley/On%20the%20Hill.htm

www.rafmra.org.uk

A VIEW FROM THE HILL

Every year, I start by wondering what I’m going to talk about, but this is an exception. This issue of OtH marks the 60^th anniversary of the Service’s foundation, and the 10^th of the formation of the RAFMRA. What’s more, it marks the departure of Alister Haveron from the RAF (but not from the MRA). I don’t want to embarrass the chap by heaping praises on his head (we all know how modest he is), but I do want to thank him for his patience and help, given unstintingly over the years. That was very necessary for someone who was in the Service for only 18 months during National Service.

Others are more qualified than I to affirm that he is equally ready to give help and guidance on the hill. Thank you, Alister. And Pat and Alister - enjoy North Wales.

Frank Card

FAREWELL TO THE WHIPPERSNAPPER

Bill Batson

(FS Bill Batson, MRS Chief Instructor RAF Stafford)

I was 11 years old when Alister Haveron joined the RAF Mountain Rescue Service; most of you weren’t born. He was posted to Leuchars MRT a year after joining up, the young loon with the loud voice soon became known as the “Whippersnapper”. From that time to this Alister has been away from MR for only a very short period. And now, finally, he is leaving, after more than 35 years “before the mast” – and you thought you knew about commitment.

During those 35 years Alister has served as Team Leader at Leeming and Valley and as DTL at Kinloss, Leuchars and St Athan. In 1982 he became (by natural selection) the very first Chief Instructor to the RAF MRS, working alone from a converted bedroom in the old Kinloss accommodation block, from where he tackled the many and varied challenges of the day. Suffice it to say that it now takes two officers, a flight sergeant and a chief tech to do the same job. Throughout his MR ‘career’ he has remained an incredibly strong mountaineer and will, I know, continue to see off the “young loons” to his very last day in the Air Force. Woe betide the troop who decides to give Alister a race on the hill – be warned – he may be old enough to be your father but by the time he’s finished with you you’ll wish you’d never slapped down that gauntlet in the first place. Trust me. I know.

The old fella’s no slouch on the crag either. The ‘man of a hundred Summer Courses’ (not to mention Winter courses) has climbed up, down and across virtually every crag in North Wales. To see him in action at the Moelwyns is to see a man at one with the mountain. Pairing up with Alister on a climb makes for guaranteed action and we’ve shared some great adventures. The Corner, The Gates, Nexus, Last Tango, to name but a few. Great days.

Jobs too. Hundreds of them. Perhaps his finest hour was leading the successful rescue mission to Borneo in 1994, where 5 British servicemen were rescued from a genuine near-death situation deep in Low’s Gully on Mount Kinabalu. Another, less well-known incident occurred back in the mid-sixties when Alister physically carried one of his own, exhausted, team-mates off the hill in desperate weather. Respect.

Alister received a BEM for services to MR in 1984 and an MBE in this year’s Queen’s New Year Honours list. Just rewards for a lifetime of dedication, inspiration and example.

Like all good things, everything must come to an end and so it is that Alister is finally leaving – not just MR, but the RAF. But not before he attends one last – his 30^th – Summer Course in North Wales. Alister’s name will no doubt go down on the Roll of Honour with the other MR greats – Lees, Hinde, McGowan, Heavy et al. So will this be the last we see of him? Will we hear that boyish giggle in the pub after a few too many pints or see that amazing Beatles wig ever again? Of course we will. Will we ever get to the top of the hill before him? Not a chance.

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Alister apparently c1968 courtesy of Sunshine

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THIS IS NOT THE END - JUST A NEW BEGINNING

Alister Haveron

January’s New Years Honours produced the following awards for the following MRS personnel.

WO Alister Haveron - MBE

FS Dan Carroll - MBE

Sgt Jason Taylor – AOC’s Commendation

Jnr Tech Ed Roberts – C-in-C’s Commendation

Wilkinson Sword of Peace 2002

The Sword was presented to the RAF Mountain Rescue Service by Air Marshal Sir Christopher Coville, Air Member for Personnel, with representatives from the five teams in attendance, in the Officers Mess at Kinloss. The main points for the award were Everest, F15 crash, Iceland, Alaska and charity work.

Alister Haveron

THIS IS NOT THE END - JUST A NEW BEGINNING

Alister Haveron

have been here before writing an article, when I finished my tour as WO MRS / Chief Instructor, six years ago, and had decided it was time to hang up my MR boots. That was short lived and I was soon back on the Kinloss Team. However, this time it is final as I finished in the Air Force in August. My career in the RAF has spanned over 37 years, with 33 years of it being spent as either part- or full-time in the MRS. It all goes back to early 1967 when I was posted to Leuchars from basic trade training, at St Athan, as a General Mechanic Mechanical. Being from Northern Ireland and with no chance of going home at weekends I decided to go out with the MR Team to see what they did and see whether I liked it or not. I had some experience of the outdoors, having been brought up in hills and peat bogs of Co Antrim. The rest is history.

My first weekend out was in mid February 1967, with the base camp being at Auchallater, near Braemar. We departed Leuchars at 6 o’clock on the Friday evening (some things never change: leave 6 o’clock on Friday evening, back 9 or 10 o’clock on the Sunday evening). The drive to base camp wasn’t uneventful with over a foot of fresh snow on the A93 as we travelled up through Glenshee. On reaching the Devil’s Elbow it all became too much for the three-tonner and it was all hands to the tailboard it was assisted up round the steep, sharp, bends. On arrival at Auchallater it was a case of shovelling away about a foot of snow before we could put the two,160-lb tents up, one for a cook shack and the other for sleeping accommodation. The more senior members used the nearby RAF owned Auchallater bothy. After a good night’s sleep and a hearty fried breakfast I was off up Glen Clunie with Ron Mennie and Scouse Houlighan for a drop off at Baddoch. Our route for the day was up the Baddoch Burn and then bearing left up onto Carn a’ Gheoidh and then out to Carn Bhinnein. We then retraced our steps back to Gheoidh, finishing off by taking in Carn Aosda and Cairnwell. I think the intention of the two old-timers was to give the young upstart a beasting in the fresh deep snow. However what they hadn’t bargained for was that I had been in the hills before and that I had just completed six months of basic training, which included lots of PT sessions. After a while of me tapping on their heels as they made track through the deep snow they decided I should take my turn in front; this certainly sapped some of my excess energy. In fact I found it very tiring but I tried not to show it and for that I had the privilege of breaking trail for the rest of the day. Bullying springs to mind, but never mind it was good character training and the start of my Munro-bagging. I finished the Munros on Ben Hope, many years later, with Has Oldham when I was TL at Valley and had taken the Team up to Fort William for an August grant.

Now back to my first weekend and the plan of action for the Sunday. It was going to be snow and ice techniques and stretcher lowering. So off again up Glen Clunie to the car park at Gleeshee ski centre and up onto the side of Carn Aosda. Here we practised step cutting, ice axe braking, belaying skills and use of crampons, prior to the stretcher lowering exercise. All this was fairly basic as it was being done before the days of ‘Deadman’ anchors, metal-shafted ice axes or harnesses and if my memory serves me right I think we were using 100ft hawser laid ropes, even though teams had 500ft braided Terylene rope. For stretcher lowering your basic anchor to the snow consisted of a hemp cord rapped round your body six times, tied off with reef knot. A large steel Hiat karabiner was then attached to the waistline and the lowering rope was then tied into it with a tarbuck knot, when using the hawser laid rope. The configuration of this particular knot was for it to act as a shock absorber when suddenly loaded. Your wooden shafted ice-axe was then plunged into snow as deep as possible and the rope was then rapped around the axe and brought back to your waist belt and tied off with a figure of eight knot on the bight. With the stretcher tied on and

On the Hill 2003 (online version)

Table of Contents

(Click on titles to go to the article)

A VIEW FROM THE SERVICE Shane Spence

A VIEW FROM THE CHAIR Brian Canfer

FAREWELL TO THE WHIPPERSNAPPER Bill Batson

MOUNTAIN RESCUE HONOURS

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Hill Bones Solve Mystery John Ross

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

A VIEW FROM THE SERVICE

FAREWELL TO THE WHIPPERSNAPPER

Bill Batson

January’s New Years Honours produced the following awards for the following MRS personnel.

Alister Haveron