ISSUE 5 – SEPTEMBER 2016 SUPPORT THE RAF POLICE MEMORIAL FUND The views expressed in The Wanderer are those of the Editor and individual contributors and do not necessarily represent Branch or RAFPA policy The Wanderer September 2016 Branch Demographics Chairman’s Rant Australia (3 members) Bulgaria (1 member) Doesn't time fly? The St.Michael's Branch of the RAFPA Canada (4 members) started over a year ago and it is almost two and a half Canary Islands (1 member) years ago that a small niggle in the back of my mind that Cyprus (7 members) overseas members were getting a raw deal from the UK France (2 members) land based hierarchy started to aggravate. Germany (3 members) I had to do a re-write of my original ‘rant’ as it was written Gibraltar (2 members) before the announcement that I had been made the co- Greece (1 member) recipient of the Alan Rusling Memorial Award. Guernsey C.I. (1 member) Ireland (Eire) (1 member) Now to say I was surprised is an understatement, when it Jersey C.I. (1 member) was announced I thought "Who me, they must have got it Netherlands (1 member) wrong". New Zealand (3 members) Philippines (1 member) The truth is the award belongs to all those who believed in Portugal (2 members) and supported the proposal of an overseas branch, Singapore (1 member) particularly Neil who has worked so hard to ensure that my South Africa (3 members) ideas were carried through to fruition. Without everyone's Spain ( 3 members) support it would have been very difficult to achieve. Thank you again. Switzerland (1 member) U.A.E (1 member) My flight is booked for the ECM in October to ensure that U.S.A (4 members) St.Mike’s has a voice. Let Neil or me know if there is (47 members in total) anything that you wish me to bring to the attention of the Branch Who’s Who Council. Regards John Chairman : John Armfield PRINTING THE WANDERER [email protected] Vice-Chairman & Wanderer: The Wanderer template has now been re-formatted to allow for it to be printed as a more reader friendly A5 booklet. So if you are Editor - John Reid one that prefers to read a hard copy do the following: [email protected] 1. Feed your printer with A4 paper. Secretary & Website: 2. Open the document using Adobe Acrobat Reader. Neil Rusling 3. “Click” on Print. [email protected] 4. “Click” on the Booklet button (located below Page Size & Handling). Branch Website: 5. Ensue that “Booklet Subset” is set to “Both Sides”. http://st-mike.com 6. “Click” on the Print button (the booklet will then print on the Branch Facebook Group: front side of the paper). 7. Reverse the printed pages and then print on the reverse of https://www.facebook.com/grou the paper. ps/1472743989683244/ 8. A simple fold and you have your booklet ready to read. Page 2 of 16 The Wanderer September 2016 A NUTTER ON BOARD BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT BA28 During the period 1994-97 I was extremely fortunate enough as a Sgt to be operating in Hong Kong as part of a 4 man RAF Police Team amalgamated within the first ever Joint Intelligence & Security Unit, known as JISU, but sadly Army led ! In 1995 I was selected to attend a Counter Sabotage specialist-training course in the UK for one month along with a colleague from the Royal Hong Kong Police. As the course approached I bid farewell to my wife and set off on my 13 hour trip via a British Airways 747 to Heathrow. A few hours into the flight and at 38000 feet I was dozing in an aisle seat when I heard a commotion on the opposite aisle and looked across to witness a tall man shouting and running down the aisle and he began to drop kick at the exit doors quite violently as the stewardess tried to calm him he lashed out at her and began to run across the galley and into my aisle running up towards me. There was a lot of commotion going on. Before he got to me a male steward tried to grab him but the male punched out at him and the steward fell to the floor. I thought something needs to be done about this idiot ! Just before he passed me running up the aisle I stood up quickly and with a straight arm caught him right across the throat and took him down onto the floor whereupon I fell on top of him and struggled to restrain him. Thankfully the male steward had recovered his composure and came to my aid and we subdued him and removed him to the rear of the aircraft. We used plastic cuffs to restrain him further and the staff gave him a drink of coke, which if I remember correctly had a sedative in it to calm him down. He kept saying his name was Genghis Khan and was clearly not of sound mind. I was summoned to the flight deck to talk with the captain, who thanked me for my intervention and asked for advice on what to do. I explained that we had the man under control now and had another member of the military with me and we would guard him until we reached our destination. The captain advised that he was considering diverting the aircraft to Tehran to disembark the passenger, but after me explaining he was under guard decided against this decision. Other than the occasional outburst the man gave no more trouble during the flight. At Heathrow I was asked to remain on board after the other passengers had left to meet with the police and to hand over the man concerned, which I did. The captain and stewards again thanked me for my intervention, which had I had not done so, could have proved a much more serious incident. After I handed the man over to the Police I continued my journey with 2 bottles of champagne which the 2 stewardess’s had given me as a thank you. It was also a nice feeling to be thanked by so many passengers as they were leaving the plane. When I spoke with my wife on the phone later that day I told her about my cabaret on the plane, laughing it off, she in turn just happened to mention it to my IC Section in passing when she saw him – little did I know what was happening behind the scenes from that moment on ! I later learned that the man, called Brian ? from Ricksm anworth, was well known to the police and had several pages on the PNC including markers for violence and a mental disorder – phew, I am glad I never knew that before I tackled him ! (continued on next page) Page 3 of 16 The Wanderer September 2016 Anyway I attended the course with my colleague and we had a great time together and learned many things about sabotage including a 3 day instruction by the SAS at Hereford on how to prepare and detonate various explosive devices – we loved this part ! All too soon the course was over and I returned to Hong Kong. At the end of that year I was called into the OC’s office and was told that because of my actions on Flight BA28 I was being awarded the General’s Personal Commendation – what a shock, but equally a pleasant surprise. Gladys, John Jnr (my son) and myself attended a ceremony in HQBF HK where the General met us and a statement was read out outlining the incident and he handed over his framed commendation and offered his congratulations. The ceremony was also recorded in the RAF News. A point of interest is that a Sun Newspaper journalist had got wind of the incident according to the Military PR people and was going to publish that I was operating undercover monitoring military drug smuggling activities– it never went to print ! The things we do when we are young eh ! John Reid Vice Chairman “The Abu” There is a very old pub in central Manchester called the Sir Ralph Abercrombie (“The Abu”) which is but a “ spit & a stride” from Bootle Street police station, a right keg of "blue bottles". I had a very good friend, PC 98 Allan Widdowson, who had been stationed there all of his career, very much a “City” copper; he was also an ex-Grenadier and a true gent. After years of mythering from his bosses he eventually took an advanced driving course and passed with flying colours; very good for a guy who had never owned a car as he was constantly financially embarrassed! I had a clapped out Austin A 35 Countryman which, during my embarkation leave prior to going to Bruggen (early 70’s), I donated to him as it was my intention to buy a new car once in Germany; he was ever so proud of his FIRST car. After the late shift at Bootle Street we would meet up in the Abu and a few days after he had inherited the car we did just that; all his shift mates were present and busy refreshing themselves after a hard shift! Closing time came and went (as usual), we would then proceed to the "Queens night club" in the gay village, you know how it went, knock, knock, window opens "oh it's Lilly law, again!", door opens as usual. All the big wigs were there, judges business men etc.