New Photos added to the Gallery
Seasonal Greetings
Bob Graffham has sent you his seasonal greetings from down under (click here to view)
Clive Taylor (Ex SAR Diver Lee-on-Solent)
We have received a request from Clive's Wife Madelen.
Clive is not very well and now living in a Nursing Home in Havant, Madelen has asked if anyone who knows Clive could they spare five minutes and give him a call or better still if you are in the Portsmouth / Havent area could you drop in and see him?
Change of Venue for AGM
For further information please click here.
RAUT pages
All the RAUT pages have now
been updated,
Congratulations and well done
Queen's Gallantry Medal (QGM) CPOACMN David Paul RIGG
Queen's Commendation for Bravery in the Air (QCBA) POACMN Marcus John WIGFULL
ACA Forum
Please use the ACA Forum to leave your comments
About us
Although not always known as Aircrewmen, we have been around for longer than many realise.
During the second World War the first generation were called 'Telegraphist Air Gunners' (TAG's). They flew in the rear seats of Fairey Swordfish and other similar aircraft performing the navigation, communication and air-gunner roles, and took part in all the major Fleet Air Arm skirmishes during WW2.
Soon
after the war, the helicopter hovered onto the scene, and as the versatility
of this new aircraft became apparent, so men from the various branches were
'loaned' to become Rating Aircrew, and carry out the wide variety of tasks
that the role demanded.
During this period TAG's and Aircrewmen, and more recently Women, have served with distinction, many of who's service has been recognised with numerous decorations for gallantry and distinguished service.
Membership
Membership is open to all Royal Navy, Fleet Air Arm Serving, and ex Rating Aircrew, Telegraphist Air Gunner's (TAG'S)
Time for the ACA golfing competition again.
This year it will be at Woodspring Golf Course, really good deal of chicken
and chips (1200), followed by 18 holes of championship golf (1300) so be
there early.
All for £20 + £5 for the prizes.
A great course and only just down the road from the hotel towards the airport.
If any of you would like to play (I have booked for 16 at the moment) please
drop me a line or ring me on 07767203315.
Also if you know of any other ACA members who like to play, please tell them.
I would appreciate early payment please, as I will have to put a deposit
down and nobody like chasing people up for payment at the last moment, do
they!!!
My address for the Cheque of £25 made out to me please
John Sheldon
By-Church
Yeovilton
Somerset.
BA22 8EX
Remembrance Sunday 7th November 2009
We had a great turn out this year, with 26 ACA members marching at the Cenotaph.
If you wish to march next year, book early with John Sheldon as we only have 30 places and they are likely to go quickly, on a first come first served bases.
Ray Flys our Standard at St Pauls
For more pictures and detail of what Ray got up to click here.
Did you know you can get discount?
Check out the Forces Discount site
As a member of the Defence Community, you can enjoy FREE membership of the Defence Discount Directory. Gain access to hundreds of special services, deals and discounts.
The Defence Community comprises active members of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF, Royal Marines, Civil Service, Territorial Army; as well as Reservists, Veterans and Partners.
Rescue 194:
The Incredible Story of the Rescue of the Crew of the MSC Napoli
by the Man Who Saved Them
Authors: O'Donnell
Jay January 2007, and the TV news
bulletins are full of reports of a Whisky Galore story of high-performance
motorbikes and other goods washed up on a south coast beach. Thousands of people
turned up to see what they could scavenge. But what got lost in the heady free-for-all
was the fate of the ship that had been the source of all the treasure: the
British-registered MSC Napoli …
Rolling in across the Atlantic was the fiercest storm to rock the British Isles for decades. The European Windstorm 'Kyrill' would go on to claim nearly fifty lives by the time it blew itself out, eleven casualties in Britain alone.
Aboard the MSC Napoli a crew of twenty-six feared they might be added to that list. Their ship, holed beneath the waterline where the hull had cracked, had to be abandoned and the crew ordered into their lifeboat by the captain. There, sweltering inside their survival suits, and riding out waves rising higher than forty feet, they waited for rescue.
That was when the alert crews of 771 Naval Air Squadron were scrambled. Within minutes of receiving the distress signal, two Sea King helicopters, Rescue 193 and Rescue 194, took off from their airbase in Cornwall, turned into the wind, and battled their way through the ferocious weather towards the survivors.
Although he was supposed to have finished work for the day, Petty Officer Aircrewman Jay O'Donnell jumped on board Rescue 194 in case he could help. For O'Donnell was a graduate of one of the most arduous and demanding training programmes the British Armed Forces had to offer: he was a Royal Navy Search and Rescue Diver.
Over the hours that followed, in appalling conditions, he would be tested to the limit and beyond . . . In Rescue 194, O'Donnell tells the extraordinary inside story of the rescue of the crew of the Napoli for the first time. It's a gripping tale of disaster at sea, the power of the elements and, above all, of the skill, courage and determination that saw the helicopter crews earn awards for their bravery that day – and for Jay O'Donnell to be decorated by the Queen for gallantry.
New Book "Special Forces Pilot"
Richard Hutchings, who served throughout the Falklands war with
846 Naval Air Squadron flying Sea King helicopters, has waited over twenty-five
years to tell his story.
The sensitive nature of his experiences not only made this a sensible course but today provides the reader with some fascinating insights into the conduct of operations.
Dick Hutchings’ role was to insert Special Force units onto the enemy occupied islands either to gather intelligence or conduct offensive operations, such as the SAS’s sensationally successful Pebble Island raid. Without doubt the most dramatic task he undertook was the ambitious but ill- fated SAS raid into mainland Argentina.
Operation MIKADO, as it was known, has been little discussed but, as Captain of the Sea King involved, the author gives a first-hand account of what went wrong both in the air and on the ground. He describes the circumstances leading up to the crash-landing and destruction of his helicopter, encounters with the Chilean authorities and British diplomats in Santiago as well as the debriefing in an M16 safe house on return to the UK.
As well as being the fullest description of Operation MIKADO Special Forces Pilot is a gripping account of the War from the flying and SF angles.
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