Laying Up Ceremony 09

Whilst AVM Turner thought it fantastic to be invited to the Disbandment Ceremony and the Lunch, he thought that everyone might be wondering what on earth a helicopter pilot was doing there addressing a ‘fast jet’ audience. However, he had studied the Squadron’s history and had noticed that it had operated the Westland Lysander at an early point in its history and therefore he thought – exactly right: Army Cooperation at its fore and at its core. So it was great to be there.

It was obviously a very sad occasion, but it also a happy time in some respects. It was sad to see the Standard dais behind him unoccupied by the 208 Squadron Standard. It was great shame, in a way, that it had to be Laid Up but, as had been rightly said, it could not have gone to a more venerable location than the Royal Air Force Church in St Clement Danes. This was the spiritual home in both senses of that word, for the Royal Air Force. It was a core place of RAF psyche, it is where the Service returned to year on year on year and numerous events around the annual calendar would see the Standard emblazoned in the eaves of the Gallery. So, it was spectacular that it should go there, and he thanked the Squadron for that.

AVM Turner sympathised with Wing Commander Kidd about the closure, and had noted down the point about spirit and esprit de corps that he reflected on in his earlier speech. The AVM thought this was something quite profound, and was really, really pleased with the dignity and respect with which Wing Commander Kidd had closed out the Squadron at this particular occasion. He felt that it could have been really easy to have seen 208’s closure as some sort of blurry-eyed Valley moment that would have been easily forgotten, and it would otherwise have been have been closed out at the end of the month of March 2016, probably in an inappropriate way. He was very glad, therefore, that the Squadron had taken the energy, the psychology and the time to reflect properly on it, to do it in the right way and to do it in the right place. He thought that it was the most fitting end to Wing Commander Kidd’s Command of 208 Squadron, the amazing Squadron that it was, with such a great history.

But he could not end there. The Squadron had operated from RAF Valley for 21 years, with a thousand fast jet pilots trained to defend Her Majesty’s Nation, close with and kill The Queen’s enemies where and if  necessary. It had therefore been a tremendous period of operational delivery in defence of the United Kingdom and its fellow partners from around the world and overseas. The Squadron had a tremendously colourful history, and he truly thought that the Standard was not going into the eaves of St Clement Danes, never to come out again. He reflected on the Chaplain’s earlier sermon that no-one knew what was really going to happen in the future. We could be sure of the past, but it would be tremendously difficult to look out to the future.

As Wing Commander Kidd had mentioned, a hundred years ago, the flying services were predominantly about pilots that went with aircraft overseas somewhere away from home and

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