THE STRIPPER ~ THE SEQUEL
In the last issue you read about the Cabaret Evening in the Airmen’s Mess in 1956. I omitted to say that the article was taken from the Daily Express for whom Sydney Smith was a reporter. There is a sequel to the story which Dickie Rogers relates in his own words below together with the background to the function.
It all started when Wing Commander Pawson, the C.O. was asked if he could raise funds to assist the R.A.F. Cricket Team to buy some equipment because Special Services did not seem to be interested in supplying anything. The C.O. made representations to the Air Ministry for some funds and eventually he received £100 with the stipulation that it must be spent by the end of the financial year which was then 7 weeks away. So conversations took place and eventually Wally Masterton the Sergeant G.D. who worked with Special Services was approached for a suggestion - the result we all know.
So the night in question arrived, all ranks were invited which included all Officers, one of a certain rank accepted and the evening went with a swing and no trouble whatsoever.
Shortly after the U.K. Press published stories of how RAF men at an International H.Q in Fontainebleau had been entertained to a strip show in the airmen’s mess. This led eventually to 3 reporters arriving at the gates requesting to see the C.O. of the R.A.F. Eventually they were granted an audience with the C.O. and off back to England. The story appeared again and was then forgotten.
Now in the RAF Support Unit tongues began wagging. The Adjutant, Squadron Leader Ted Strange instructed the 2 Sergeants in the Orderly Room (who will nameless) to carry out a check of all 280s to find out which airmen lived within a certain district in England. Ted Strange, it appears, had a friend at the Air Ministry who worked in the Department that dealt with P.Q.s (Parliamentary Questions to the uninitiated) and whilst the “friend” was not prepared to give the name of the M.P. who had put a question in motion he gave Ted the constituency he represented. After a thorough search through all the 280s certain names came to light of airmen who lived in that constituency and one name came to the top of the list. It appears this airman had written to Mummy saying that he had been to a party in the Airmen’s Mess and seen 6 ladies take all their clothes off and they were “starkers.” Mummy was not impressed that her little boy had attended such a gathering and wrote to her M.P.
Time went by until eventually the “culprit” submitted an application for U.K. leave. The Sergeant in charge of Movements and Leave had to cook up a plan of punishment. A plan was hatched and the day before the culprit was due to proceed on leave he reported to the Orderly Room to collect his travel documents only to be told that there had been a cock-up and that he would have to go to the desk at the British Embassy in Paris that night to collect his tickets. He set off for Paris that afternoon and when he reported to the Embassy Desk he was informed that there were no tickets there for him – I wonder why. So back to Fontainebleau and a trip to the Orderly Room the next day to be given his travel documents to enable him to proceed on leave.
In a conversation with the Sergeant the “culprit” was told that a dim view had been taken of his actions that had caused a lot of trouble to a lot of people. He was finally advised to bear in mind the old saying “Hear all – See all – and say …….. all.
Folks I know this story is true because I was the Sergeant i/c Movements and Leave.