“A volunteer is worth ….”
Posted by Big John on September 28, 2007
At the time when I started my two years of national service in 1958 very few young men were being drafted into the Royal Air Force: so instead of being trained with a ’flight’ consisting of all conscripts, I was grouped together with a mixed bunch of what you might call ‘pressed men’ and volunteer ‘regulars’ who had ’signed on’ for periods of between three and twentyseven years.
The photograph above is part of a larger formal group and was taken a few days after I and my fellow recruits arrived at RAF Wilmslow to begin eight weeks of ’square-bashing’ (boot camp). I’m the baby-faced one in the lower left corner.
I have selected this section of the larger group as it shows thirteen typical conscripts and just ONE volunteer…
… Can you guess which one he is ? 
September 28, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I’d guess the one on the top right is your volunteer? Yes? No?
September 29, 2007 at 12:03 am
Well the gent on the upper right corner certainly looks happy to be there. That’s for sure. What really got my attention was the fact that some signed on for 27 years. Wow.
October 1, 2007 at 11:14 am
Yes, He was the one, but after a few weeks he was taken away by ‘men in white coats’.