The Chairman was also pleased to announce that the Committee had appointed
3 persons to be Life Vice-Presidents for services to the Naval Eight / 208 Squadron Association. These were: Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork; Air Commodore Ben Laite; and the stalwart of the Meteor Chapter, Desmond Penrose. In a similar vein, the Committee had agreed to award Associate Membership to Air Commodore Spike Milligan, and also to Gill Howie and Berry Vissers of Squadron Prints.
The Chairman then handed over to the President to say a few words and introduce the Guest Speaker.
THE 
PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
The President noted 100 years of Squadron history, which was pretty impressive in anyone’s book. It had been a great pity that the Squadron had not quite made it
s 100 years but, as Ben Laite had mentioned earlier in the Grace, only the MOD would cut a squadron short of our birthday party by about 6 months! But, nonetheless, it had been a very good year, celebrating regardless of the MOD. Thinking back to the History of the Squadron: in World War One, it had 25 ‘Aces’, including an Australian called Little who shot down 47 aeroplanes. The Squadron achieved
25 DFCs in World War Two. By anyone’s imagination, that was a pretty impressive record, which had continued through the years: 51 years of unbroken service in the Near-East, the Middle-East and Africa. Eventually the Squadron had been allowed to return to the UK when it reformed on Buccaneers in the ‘70s. This had been a highly successful introduction of the Squadron back to the UK with a memorable introduction to Red Flag when 208 had been the first RAF Squadron to go on Red Flag and demonstrate to the Americans how to fly.
The Squadron had fought in World War One. It had fought all the way across the Hurricane boys, the Spitfire boys, the Meteor boys, the Hunter boys, Buccaneer boys and, of course, the Hawk boys. It had been a marvellous record of achievement, spirit and dedication to the task. It had trained most of the fast-jet pilots in the UK over the previous 2 decades – quite an achievement in itself – and not many squadrons had reached their 100th year, indeed the RAF was yet to reach its 100th. The Squadron could therefore be very proud of what it had achieved. Disbandment had not stopped 2016 from being a very memorable year for the Squadron. A superb effort by the Hawk Squadron at Valley over the celebration in April, and a memorable Laying-Up of the Standard in St Clement Danes.
