I had been in the US Air Force for a total of 4 years and had just received my bars for my promotion to Captain. Really a pretty good promotion record since I had enlisted as a 2nd Lt, got promoted to 1st. Lt. a year later and here I was a full- fledged Captain three years after that. After my flight training down in Texas they transferred me up to Kansas for training on the KC 135 tankers. I loved the training but hated Kansas. I had just finished my training on the KC 135's when orders came through transferring me to England. What was this all about?
The Commanding Officer was no help in telling me what was going on so I had to dig around and finally got to the CO's Master Sargent and the old saying of 'when you want to find out what's going on in the service,- don't ask the CO -ask his Master Sargent' was true once again. I had received some training in the old World War II C 47 planes when I first got to Kansas and apparently an RAF squadron in England had a few of them that some of the old pilots occasionally flew for old-times sake and wanted someone to teach some of their new pilots how to handle them. So, I was off to Limeyville.
I flew over as a co-pilot on a KC135 and when we landed in England caught a Jeep over to the WWII Quonset hut they were still using as a Flight Control office. I stumbled into the gal they had as their secretary as I entered the hut and couldn't help but notice how cute she was.
"Hi, I'm Captain Jim McIntyre and I guess this is the place that wanted me as an instructor."
With a huge smile she answered, "Hello Jim, I'm Sarah and I'm the squadron paper-work pusher. Welcome to England."
With her accent she was a full- fledged product of merry ole England. Sure enough her dad had retired from the British Air Force as a fighter pilot a year earlier and had helped her get the job a month before he was killed in a car accident. She had been divorced for 6 months after a rotten 1 year marriage and had an apartment a few miles from the base and after a few chats it was obvious she loved what she was doing.
I must have had a dozen brief conversations with her regarding all kinds of things I needed to get the training started over the next several days and she seemed to have a good handle on the whole place. She was just a few years younger than me so we fortunately liked most of the same things in music as well as we stayed current in world events.
The training was going to take about a month since the pilots to get trained all had other flying assignments and could only spare a day a week at the most for C-47 stuff. No problem, it would give me a chance to enjoy England.
A few days after settling into my little office Sarah came over and said there was a great show at Covent Gardens, a theater in London, that she had managed to get two tickets for and asked if I would be interested in seeing it.
"Interested? I would love it." I answered enthusiastically.
"You have the tickets and I'll spring for dinner but since I don't know squat about London I'll trust you to make reservations at a nice place for dinner, Deal?"
"Heck, you don't have to do that. We can grab a bite at any one of a number of little places near the theatre and that will be fine. We can go for a drink at a place near the base on our way back"
"It's up to you but I'd be happy to spring for dinner." I replied.
The show was magnificent and I enjoyed the bite before dinner as well as the drinks afterwards. She was a fun gal to be around.
The training was going pretty well since the trainees were all pilots it wasn't as if I had a bunch of new recruits to work with. The planes were all WW II leftovers but they had spruced up a couple to be flying offices for the brass. They had paneled the walls after ripping out the seats the paratroopers had used and replaced them with easy chairs and sofas as well as a huge table down the center of the rear compartment. Pretty fancy!
A couple of days after getting there I had a get together with the Brigadier who had the responsibility of the squadron and that included the C 47's. He asked if I need anything and I said,
"Well Sir, I don't have any way to get around both on and off the base. They wouldn't let me fly my car over." I said with a laugh.
He roared and said that he could handle that problem and buzzed his orderly telling him to work out a way to provide me with a car for my time with them. Almost before I left that office there was a very nice Morris Minor waiting for me outside the office. I was set.
Later that day I called Sarah and asked if she would like to go for a spin in my new car. She laughed but agreed.
Things went along great for a few days and then as if it was all going to hit the fan at the same time two of the planes came down with some serious mechanical difficulties. Damn, this was going to put a big delay in the training.
After checking with the chief mechanics I found that because of the age of the planes and the scarcity of parts for these old birds it was going to be a few weeks before all of them were airworthy again. I went into see the Brigadier.
"Well Captain, what do you think of London now that you have been here for a week or so?"
"Sir I have learned to love it in a short time but I don't know if you have heard the latest with the planes. Two of the four are suffering serious mechanical problems and will be out of action for a few weeks. Rather than try and limp along with trying to train the group of pilots with this reduction in planes I think it would be best of we simply delayed the training until all of the planes were back on the line and ready for service."
"Whatever you say Captain, just give me the word when you think it best to resume training."
"Sir, I can do that but do you think I should return to the States and then return later or do you think if best if I remain here and be ready if the mechanics get the planes ready quicker. If that is what you decide will you clear it with my State-side squadron?"
"Consider it done and go and enjoy the country while you wait." He so ordered
.
Damn, this was almost a license to steal ---a couple of weeks in England with no responsibilities.
My first call was to Sarah and told her the news.
"Wow, whatever are you going to do with all of that free time?" she asked sheepishly.
"Well first I'm going to ask a pretty squadron secretary if she'd like to go on some kind of picnic this weekend out in the countryside so I could say I saw more of England that just the air base and Covent Garden theatre in London."
"If that secretary is me I accept. I'll pack a picnic basket and get you some good maps of this part of the country."
Unlike the usual rainy English weather the forecast was going to be perfect for the entire weekend so I picked her up in front of her apartment at 9 AM and we were off.
She had done a little research and found a historical place she thought would interest me and it was only going to be an hour and half drive.