RAF Mildenhall (Air Fete 86/87)

[WARPEE]

Here's some pics from the old days of one of the largest NATO air displays...I was a HAPPY flightline "cop", armed with my M-16 and Vivitar "TREK 50" underwater camera, which meant I had a fixed lens and no adjustments...I got most of my shots while on patrol, before the crowd came in at 0800...We usually average about 150,000 to 200,000 people per day (Saturday and Sunday)...We started work on "Air Fete" Thursday morning with "rope and barrel" detail, marking the off limits areas...Friday was "arrival day", so Base Ops and Transcient Alert would tear thier hair out parking all the aircraft...Squadrons would be busy setting up thier foodbooths, that usually sold patches, t-shirts and hats, along with food, beer and soft drinks...This work went on until Saturday 0600! A LOT of details to square away! In 86, I was night time security, so I knocked off at 0730, and went to the barracks for a "combat nap", then I showered, shaved, and put on my BDUs, and went back out to "play" and take photos...

[WARPEE]

Okay, true story...(No s**t, there I was!) We got a call, Air Fete 86, that some guy had a grenade launcher on the east side, and was going to shoot at a perfoming act...We couldn't drive our M-1008s down there, so we ran like hell through the crowd...Six P/Oed cops locked and loaded on a guy getting ready to shoot at an incoming bird, when someone hollered out, DONT SHOOT! It's f**king camera!"... Six cops, lowered thier rifle barrels, and walked away, still panting from the quarter mile sprint, as a confused photographer lowered his "Fotosniper" camera that looked like an H&K 40MM G/L from a distance...

[evangilder]

I have a very similar shot with the 135 and the F-111s. I was there for the show too. I will have to see what I have in my archives.

[evangilder]

I have a crummy negative scanner. I shot these with my old Minolta X-370.

[skippyscage]

nice trip down memory lane - funny that we were at the same place at the same time!

[WARPEE]

It's kind of sad that we couldn't talk to you guys more...Our "orders" were not to encourage you guys to gather information, and to neither confirm/deny any information you guys probably already knew...We didn't want to tip our hands to the Russians...

I ran into 2 "kids" in the old campground, on the east side perimeter road...His book on tailnumbers/aircraft origins completely blew me away! It was way more information that I knew about aircraft! I couldn't help but like those 2 kids! I told them to be careful, that there might be some real danger, in that CND scouts, or worse, terrorists, might be in the area...One of them pulled a hatchet, and said there'd be no problems in his "spot"...

A couple more...Westland Lynx HAS 2 of 702 Naval Air Sqdn., carrying Sea Skua trainers(1986)...,Blackburn Buccaneer S2B of 12 Squadron, Lincolnshire (1986)...,rear of Buccaneer showing open speed brakes (1987)

[patbodin1]

A couple more, just so I know I got the techinque down (Thanks GeoffS)

Hello, All.  I couldn't resist chiming in as I have a bit of history with the Air Fete.  Along with Colonel Hodge, Major Joe Ferry, Roger Hoefling, I was involved in the organizing of Air Fete from '84 thru '87 inclusive as the 'director of flying'.  My 'day job' at Mildenhall was chief stan/eval navigator for the 513th, which was the ABNCP (EC-135H) outfit.  Roger was the 'voice of Air Fete' as well as the commentator for Old Warden.  I was fortunate to be in the tower during the program, and made full use of my Hitachi video cam and my 35mm Nikon.  The saddest day was that of the Sunday in '86 when we lost Andy Potter and Kevin Ball when the Vintage Pair fell to earth.  For that reason I no longer attend air days.  I do, however enjoy reading all the Air Fete-related posts.  Sincerely, Pat Bodin, Major, retired

[André]

Hi Pat,

thank you for joining Fencecheck and adding your Air Fete experiences here on line. 

Feel free to post some of your 35mm results when ever you are ready. 

Cheers, André

[WARPEE]

Hey Major, an honor to have you here...My buddy Mark was the guy who hit Col Tonda's car with a M-1008, on that VP crashsite...Im just injecting some humor in a terrible tragedy...

Im sure you got some other stories, along with some pictures...Id sure like to see what you got in your shoebox marked "Mildenhall Air Fete"...

Crowd Control was a lot of fun...Of course having those MOD cops to help us out really made our day...Like the CND morons that danced all over the 'Wing Cmdrs.' F-111 from Lakenheath, a month after we gave Khaddaffi his black eye...MOD had those "kids" trussed up and shoved in a paddy wagon faster than you could say "Police Brutality"...Even I winced a couple times!

In the meantime, I'll see what else I can bring back here from a shoebox...Cheers

[miked62]

Hi all...this is my first post on FC, after having visited almost daily for over a year.  I don't have the equipment worthy to post current photos, yet (no DSLR), but after reading and viewing the photos submitted under "Mildenhall Air Fete 86/87", I had to finally join in.  I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall from 1985-1987, in the 6988th ESS.  We flew on the RC-135V/W out of the 'hall.  I was very lucky to be stationed there for the Air Fetes, in their heyday, and did take photos for the 86/87 shows.  I will begin sorting through the better ones and scan them for posting sometime soon.  It's nice to reminisce about those days!  Mike

[mhoupt]

Hello, All.  I couldn't resist chiming in as I have a bit of history with the Air Fete.  Along with Colonel Hodge, Major Joe Ferry, Roger Hoefling, I was involved in the organizing of Air Fete from '84 thru '87 inclusive as the 'director of flying'.  My 'day job' at Mildenhall was chief stan/eval navigator for the 513th, which was the ABNCP (EC-135H) outfit.  Roger was the 'voice of Air Fete' as well as the commentator for Old Warden.  I was fortunate to be in the tower during the program, and made full use of my Hitachi video cam and my 35mm Nikon.  The saddest day was that of the Sunday in '86 when we lost Andy Potter and Kevin Ball when the Vintage Pair fell to earth.  For that reason I no longer attend air days.  I do, however enjoy reading all the Air Fete-related posts.  Sincerely, Pat Bodin, Major, retired

Major,
   So you  are the guy I can thank! Wow, was that a great time in my life. Being a teenager with Dad stationed at the ARFCOS / DEFCOS det in the Navy hanger 83-86. Loved every Air Fete. I have never been to a better air show, ever (and I have been to a few)! The closest was the Nellis show last year. It had the feel, but not the number of planes and variety.

   I agree that the loss of the Vampire demo team was tragic. That year had the most memorable pieces it seems, the crash of the Vampire (and Meteor?) and the SR-71 blowing gas out the back causing the fire ball and I think the Tornado F.3 they had flying was brand new off the assembly line as well. Not to mention we were all on a bit of edge because of what had just happened a few weeks earlier in Libya.

   That time frame was just an exciting time. We arrived just before the KAL007 shoot down in Aug of 83 and from that point on it seemed as though we were always ratcheting things up a bit, cruise missiles going in down south, the Libyan stuff and other events. Good times I wont forget.

Mark

[WARPEE]

(Hi all...this is my first post on FC, after having visited almost daily for over a year.  I don't have the equipment worthy to post current photos, yet (no DSLR), but after reading and viewing the photos submitted under "Mildenhall Air Fete 86/87", I had to finally join in.  I was stationed at RAF Mildenhall from 1985-1987, in the 6988th ESS.  We flew on the RC-135V/W out of the 'hall.  I was very lucky to be stationed there for the Air Fetes, in their heyday, and did take photos for the 86/87 shows.  I will begin sorting through the better ones and scan them for posting sometime soon.  It's nice to reminisce about those days!  Mike)

Mike...I was on D-Flight (Swings/Mids) and probably tapped your line badge before you broke red...I note with a little humor that your birds had the "record" for in-flights/ground emergencies...You probably didnt think it was funny at the time...

You can actually take your photos and scan them down at a Walgreens photo booth, and put them on a CD, transfer them to "mypictures", and put them on here...You probably already know that, though...

Id sure like to see your photos, and any pictures of the boys that might have come up to investigate you, if you had access to a window in flight...I just finished the book "By Any Means Necessary", which dealt with the "ferret" flights of the 50s-late 90s...We didn't call you guys, "spooks" for nothing...

[miked62]

Hey, WARPEE, we must've crossed paths then, on the flightline.  I do have a scanner and have one photo saved so far (to see how it turned out), but I do intend to go through the 1986 and 1987 Air Fete photos, digitize them and then upload the best ones.  I should have something up in a few weeks or less.  Take care.

[André]

Okay, I have scanned 46 pictures and put them into mypictures...Can someone tell me how to shrink the photos down so that they can fit n here...Its been 3 years since I put this thread up...

Mypictures? I assume that's a photo hosting site? If you can't make the pix smaller in photoshop you can post the links instead.

[André]

"mypictures" is the app in my computer...Are you telling me to put them in Photobucket or something?

If you can't resize in photoshop, a hosting site might be the soluation indeed. Once uploaded just post the links overhere.