In August of 1969, a lucky few members of 57 Squadron got to make a tour of the USA and Canada.  The purpose of the tour was to demonstrate the IFR system to potential purchasers at three air shows. We travelled to Goose Bay, Newfoundland; Toronto, Canada; Washington DC; and Panama City, Florida. This was a most enjoyable educating adventure. I believe we took 2 aircraft and aircrews, two crew chiefs, and ten plus ground crew. I can’t remember their names. One of the Crew Chiefs may have been Chf Tech Foster (Ted?).

The ground crew didn’t stop in Goose Bay. We travelled on to Andrews Air Force Base in Washington DC. This is a very large facility with two main parallel 11,000-foot runways, that houses both Air Force and Naval Air squadrons. Andrews is widely known for serving as the home base of two Boeing aircraft with the call sign Air Force One. Andrews is the main port of entry for foreign military and government officials en route to Washington and the United States. The base is located eight miles Southeast of Washington, DC.

Just prior to our arrival there had been unrest by black Americans, windows were boarded up everywhere. The worst race riots had taken place in 1968 after Martin Luther King’s death. Two of us took a bus from Andrews Air Force base to downtown and it was a little disconcerting to say the least. I didn’t see any white people along the route, just groups of blacks on street corners with trash barrels on fire. I arrived downtown at about 6PM and the place was deserted.

I met a police captain in a bar who explained to me that Washington DC, was 98% African American; most of the other races lived in neighboring Virginia or Maryland and went straight home after work in the city. 5:30 PM each evening and the city center was virtually a ghost town. I had my first true American hamburger, which tasted far better than a Wimpy burger, and a Budweiser beer. Tasted nothing like British beer. I did find signs of life in the numerous bars and strip joints.

On a couple of occasions, I saw a line of buses transporting wounded soldiers from Vietnam. They had been airlifted in and were being taken to local care facilities. The civilian buses had been converted to hold stretchers that were clearly visible through the large glass windows. Many buses were blacked out and I was told that they mainly tried to bring them in under the cover of darkness. I saw no cheering crowds to welcome them home, only the discouraging vision that waited for them just off base.

August 20 something, we headed down to Florida just after Hurricane Camille had hit the Mississippi Gulf shore, 150 miles to the West, on August 17/18. When we arrived the base and surrounding area was still hunkered down and the skies still had traces of the outer cloud bands. Many of the aircraft at Tyndall had been flown out to escape the storm. Hurricane track forecasting was quite poor back then. I didn’t know at the time, but CAT 5 Camille was the second strongest hurricanes ever to hit the USA, killing 259 people. Wind gusts were clocked at well over 200 MPH, sustained 190 MPH and storm surge of 24 feet.

In Florida, we were based at Tyndall Air Force base, near Panama City. This large base was part of USAF Air Defense Command and housed the fighter interceptors; F-100 Super Sabre, F-101 Voodoo, F-102 Delta Dagger, F-104 Starfighter, and the F-106 Delta Dart, and provided training for air defense interceptor pilots. The base maintained an alert facility from which interceptors were scrambled to intercept unknown aircraft.

This is a beautiful area with balmy weather, white sand beaches, turquoise seas, palm trees and pretty bikini clad girls. This was where I got a real appreciation of the differences between USA and British Air Forces and how different our cultures are.

In general, USAF technicians received approximately half the training we received and it took more than twice as many personnel to service a plane. Where we had 7 trade groups, they had 22. The philosophy appeared to be teach them only what they need to know to perform a specific task, so training times were shorter and the tradesman asset less valuable. This was confirmed years later when I hired ex-USAF tradesmen. They simply didn’t have our depth of knowledge and the 3 “Rs” were weak.   Discipline and dress appeared quite lax; a lot more fraternization between the ranks. Their base support & recreation facilities were exceptional, it was more like a town than a military base. In real terms, their personnel had a higher standard of living for the equivalent rank.

Families appeared much better off, they had multiple cars, central home air conditioning and they had large screen color TVs. Restaurants that served enormous meals and some places where 99 cents bought an all-you-can-eat so called full-breakfast. They ate the Sunday roast every day of the week. I had never seen so much food being served at a meal on what we would call serving platters. No beans on toast, Marmite soldiers or bread and jam here. Bars that stayed open 24 hours, 7 days a week and churches that had flashing neon signs. Their cars were 3 times as long as ours, with AC, power steering and got 8 MPG if they were lucky. Petrol was 25 cents a gallon and they drove everywhere. No one walked or biked to the shops. I was taken aback by the number of times I was asked (by the fairer sex) to speak so they could listen to my accent. Talk about culture shock. And did I mention they had color TV.

We had some time off and three of us went into Panama city to test the nightlife. Around 9PM, we were thumbing a ride back to Tyndall in the dark, when we were run down by a large car driven by a black fellow. One of us suffered a badly fractured arm where it made contact with the car’s windshield. I dived for the ditch and survived unscathed. We were walking single file on the grass verge and not on the road. I thought he had aimed right for us. The car stopped but as I approached they drove off. I flagged down another car and we transported him to the nearest hospital. His arm was broken in multiple places. Too this day I have an enduring image of bright headlights bearing down on us and a rag doll figure being tossed in the air. If we hadn’t been spaced apart in single file the car might have hit more of us.

End of August we headed North to Toronto. In Toronto, we took part in the Canadian International Air Show (CIAS) which takes place over Lake Ontario as part of the Canadian National Exhibition on Labour Day weekend (Aug 30-Sept 1). I didn’t see the air show as we were working the flight line many miles away. I had the opportunity to visit Niagara Falls and was most surprised to find it wedged between two large cities and there were two falls; not what I had expected at all. Most pictures don’t show the adjacent high-rise buildings and bridge across the river gorge. It certainly is an incredible spectacle.

We arrived back home the first week of September. We were away about 3 weeks. Best holiday I had ever had.  We were told, it was considered a very successful venture and helped sell several IFR systems.

Roger