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Quoting: Ronald Hargreaves
My father died in 1987 and I am transcribing the 200 or so letters that he wrote to my grandparents whilst he was serving with the RAF for National Service.

In late June/ early July 1952 he had to do Fire Piquet for a week at RAF Khartoum. This is his description:

"This stunt lasts for 7 days & is just like being on jankers except that you don’t wear webbing. You go on parade every morning at 6 o’clock to hoist the flag, at 5.30 to pull it down & at 10 o’clock at night to prove that you haven’t run away. You can’t leave camp for a week & you’re not supposed to go to the NAAFI. What a bind isn’t it."

Does anyone else have any memories about Fire Piquet duties and what it involved besides raising and lowering the flag?

Elaine Hargreaves

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Quoting: john daly
The night duties were the worst for me as we walked around the camp, as Scouse said, with Pick axe handles . quite what we were supposed to do with ’em i don’t know. We had 2 hours on and 4 hours kip but had to sleep in your gear including Greatcoat, webbing belt and boots. We also had a Flt Ltnt. who when he was duty officer used to make the Fire Piquet drill on the Parade ground during the night. ( he was a Bloody Lunatic, i could write a book about this madman).

I think there will be some good stories to come out of this  and hope we get some more extracts from this mans letters.

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