Uxbridge was a Maintenance Command unit with no airfield and was compact by RAF standards, but was well set out with hills trees and flowerbeds. It was home for The Central Band, The WRAF band, The school of Music and the RAF Queens Colour Squadron. There was also a hospital and a telecommunications unit. Uxbridge was also the parent unit for the radio station at Greenford, the radar station at Heathrow, the WRAF hostel at Notting Hill Gate and various other MOD units in London. The MT section had a staff of about thirty to forty airmen and NCOs plus The MT Officer (A Flight Lieutenant). A sergeant and SAC Fireman (Des Jones) were also based in the MT yard. The fleet was made up of Minis, Morris 1800s, Zephyr 4s, various vans and trucks, three swb Land Rovers, one TK Bedford, three ambulances, three 39 seat coaches, one 31 seat coach, one 14 seat coach and a lwb Land Rover open hearse and gun carriage type trailer. On arrival, I was shown round the MT section by a SAC. I noticed the lack of three-ton trucks. And I was a bit disappointed to learn that LACs were not allowed to drive the ambulances or coaches. The food at the airman's mess was excellent, and we had a large well-run NAAFI bar, that held discos at least once a week, as well as dances, talent shows and cabaret type events.

I spent the first night in the transit block but the next evening I was given a room on the first floor of a barrack block on the far side of the parade square. The rooms were different from the rooms at Swinderby and St Athan. They were smaller with three men to a room instead of the large rooms with rows of beds and lockers on both sides. There was two names on the door, SAC Jones, and Corporal Scott. I knocked on the door and walked in. Des Jones was sitting on his bed, he was a big bloke, six feet four tall, heavily built but slim and fit. His arms looked as thick as my legs. I had seen him earlier at the Fire Section in the MT yard. I told him that I had been allocated to his room and he seemed genuinely pleased. He stood up and welcomed me in and then immediately started to re-arrange the furniture because there had only been two of them in the room for some time. I got on well with Des right from the start. He became a very good friend and we had many good times together. Just before I left Uxbridge he was posted to Cyprus. He was over the moon as he was going back onto an airfield crash team. He had been on a crash team in the Persian Gulf and after his twelve months tour he was posted to Uxbridge. Like most of the personnel he liked the camp, but he didn't like his job there. Fire cover was provided by the London Fire Brigade, so his job was just checking and refilling fire extinguishers, checking fire exits, hoses and other relevant items, and I think he found it a bit boring.

Well Des and I had spent an hour or so arranging the room, when in walked Lenny Scott. He asked what was going on, then immediately started to argue with Des. Well it wasn't really an argument, Des was not taking a bit of notice, he just sat there grinning. I of course felt a little uncomfortable. The problem was, being an oblong shaped room, two beds went one end across from each other, and the other bed had plenty of room at the opposite end. Lenny had told Des that if anybody moved in, as he was a Corporal he would have an end to himself, and Des would share with the new bloke. That explained why Des was so pleased to see me. He knew Lenny was working late so it gave him a chance to arrange the room with me next to Lenny, and there was no way that he was going to change it back. After a while Lenny settled down to the idea and the three of us went over to the Eight Bells, but he moaned about the room arrangements for weeks. Lenny was a chef at the Sisters Mess at the hospital. he was a clown and we had some hysterical times while we shared that.

After a while contractors came on the base to refurbish the barrack blocks. They had to do them one at a time so not to disrupt the accommodation too much. When ours was ready we moved across the square to our new block between station headquarters and the WRAF block. The rooms had been made larger which meant four to a room, and more single rooms had been put in for the corporals. Lenny got his own room at the opposite end of the building. Although I still used to have the odd drink or two with him, I didn't really see much of him after that.

Des and I moved into a room on the first floor, he claimed his bit at the end, I claimed the middle and we put the other two beds opposite each other at the other end of the room. Later two lads arrived together to claim the other two bed spaces. They were both drivers from the MT section and both Welshmen, SAC Jenkins and LAC Hawkins.

Every so often you would have to do a spell on emergency standby. My name came up as well as another driver from Uxbridge, Dave Fieldsend.. We had to go to the MO for jabs against small pox, yellow fever, cholera, etc. Passports were issued, our kit was inspected, and we had to go on the firing range. MT drivers use Sterling sub machine guns on the range and as I had been on the range about six weeks previous in the normal scope of my service. I went to see the RAF regiment armoury sergeant, to see if I could use the 7.62 SL Rifle instead. I was pleased when he agreed as I had not used the SLR since I had been at Swinderby.

Volunteers were needed to fill some vacancies in the Mountain Rescue units and I thought, that'll do me. I went to SHQ for the forms, filled them in and handed them to my sergeant as instructed. A few weeks later I received a memo. "Applicant turned down due to lack of experience." Another airman applied at the same time, was accepted and received a posting to RAF Leeming. I couldn't believe it, surely they had got it the wrong way round. I pulled up Sergeant Neale, I was really angry and he was surprised as it was a little out of character for me. He said that the forms that I filled in had to be passed to the MT officer for comment and he had probably recommended the other chap over me so that he could get rid of him. I said, "Well the MTO is a selfish F****** B******." . He must have agreed with me because he didn't turn from sarge to sergeant and start shouting. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked off.

I went to the NAAFI one night for a drink and met a WRAF driver in there, Kathy Lee. She was on her own so we had a few drinks and a chat then went into the disco. Her favourite record came on, "Space Oddity," so we got up and danced. The next record on was "Ja'Taime", it was the original version and had not been censored. We stayed on the floor for this slow, smoochy, almost rude dance. Kathy was a Yorkshire girl from Dewsbury. She was very nice looking, with a fabulous full figure, good personality and sense of humour. We became very close friends and enjoyed each others company in the bar many times. Apart from my mother and my wife, she was probably the best female friend that I have ever had. When she got married and they were almost immediately posted to Germany, a shining star went out of my life.

A new MTO was posted in and I thought that I would try again for overseas duty, but no vacancies were displayed. The new MTO, Flight Lieutenant McNicholas, was a friendly down to earth officer who became well respected and liked by all the section. He wore an observers' air crew badge as well as a DFC and pathfinders' badge. I didn't have to volunteer for anything anyway as events had already started to take place that would give me a spell of duty in El Adem. I was promoted from Leading Air Craftsman to Senior Air Craftsman so the two bladed prop came off my sleeves to be replaced by the three bladed ones.