Some great tales at the RAF Scotland Mountain Rescue re – union at Newtonmore. Thank you to all the families for your support over the years.

This weekend was the Annual RAF Mountain Rescue Reunion. It was a great night and RAF Lossiemouth Team joined us after the meal. What a great bunch of people. We had a superb night hosted by the Highlander Hotel who were amazing .

A wee wander with some old pals the Wildcat walk Newtonmore.

It was great to see so many old faces and their wives plus a few of their families. We had over 110 sitting down for a meal. After a few speeches then a “Phoenix nights Raffle”for Mountain Rescue raising over £450 pounds.

The highlight was the pre dinner talks By John McFadgen on Gaelic places a great insight into our language. John is from the Isle of Colonsay and a great troop. Also Jenny Hodnett gave a great chat of a lassies perspective of joining the RAF MountainRescue team in the 90’s. These were days when the RAF accepted women and were finally allowed to join the team and Jenny explained the hurdles she had to surmount. She had promised me a copy of what she said and it will be on the blog soon.

It is sad it took so long for girls to be allowed to join and there was much said at the time. Yet what an asset lassies like Jenny has been to Mountain Rescue over the years. It was great to see that the current Lossiemouth team are still going strong and their are some great lassies in the team. It took us a long time to catch up with the civilian teams in this aspect but eventually we made it. It was lovely to get the chance to talk with them they are special people.

It is wonderful to see families coming to the re Union and how can we thank them for there support over the years. I spoke to some of the wives now in there 70,s. They had no contact with their husbands on a Callout . Most homes had no phones and updates were especially on a long Call out very hard to keep in touch. Often they found their husbands were out via the radio. The kids often hardly saw their fathers. Yet they were so well supported by their families. Nowadays things are different with mobile phones but as My great pal Willie Mc Ritchie said “ the kit on the outside may have changed but the heart and soul of the troops is still the same”

It took a while for the families to be recognised within our system thank good ness things have changed. We can like all emergency Agencies repay there contribution.

Take time to sit and stare !