82nd Entry Reunion 2006

The 82nd Entry celebrated their 19th consecutive annual reunion on Friday 19th May, at The Mount Hotel, Tettenhall, Nr Wolverhampton. It was also 50 years since we signed on, at Halton, in January 1956, to become forever known as "Brats". In all, 39 ex-82nd members, 32 ladies and 3 additional guests attended. Our Guest of Honour was Min Larkin Deputy Chairman of the RAFHAAA, ex-63rd and his wife Barbara.

Min gave a very entertaining and wide ranging speech centred around the Halton training, the 82nd Entry achievements and the RAFHAAA organisation. We had several 'first-timers' in Doug Cardriver (formerly Pirie) and Jane Hutchins, Jim and Val McNeil and Dave Triggs - all from Canada, Peter and Linda Fill from the USA, Terry Mitchell,  Chris" spud" Taylor and Harold and Lynne Holmes, from the UK.

The venue was an admirable choice, the gala dinner was excellent, as was the food generally. We also added considerably to the bar takings! Entertainment was provided by Keith Arnott, ex-89th and ex-Pipe Major of the 'Golden Oldies', who played many of familiar Halton tunes including "The Bear". A new entry banner was created  and donated by "Chas" and Maureen Dewar. Some groups stayed for up to 4 nights and toured the local area. Martin Harvey organised a visit to RAF Cosford to see how technical training is organised and managed in 2006. We discovered that this bore little resemblance to our training in the 1950's. Our next reunion will be on 19th May 2007 at the Cliff Hotel, Cardigan - ‘West Wales’ - will be organised by Dave Pearson: pearson511@aol.com / 01239 810157 See you there! Mike Pond.