CONTACTS FROM RAF ABINGDON

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CONTACTS FROM RAF ABINGDON

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

11/06/2009 - DAVID JONES

David was well known as a 'Cycling Fanatic' and it was his contact with me that inspired me to create this reunion site.

He emigrated to Australia in 1984 where he did a course in TV production and is now an Editor/Post Production supervisor on a kids' adventure show. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.

STEVE COWTON

Steve is of course my brother and was stationed at Abbo at the same time as me by pure coincidence.
He was on Crash 'n' Smash and specialised in making and repairing the fibreglass exhibition models (and canoes).

He can now be found lurking around Eynsham, Oxon, with his wife Sally.

He works for Siemens.

22/09/2009 - PETE KNOWLES

Joined the MU from Halton in 1973, firstly ARF then AS&TF and stayed with them till he came out in 1981.
Now works at a private school near Reading.

24/09/2009 - OWL HURST

Left Abingdon and the RAF in 1985. Did resettlement at Williams Grand Prix Engineering, spent a year making Tail units for Spitfires for Charles Church, 2 years as a metrology inspector at AERE Harwell, split up with Annie in 1988, went to Australia for 6 months , came back to work at the village pub at Fyfield, The White Hart. Met present wife, worked in USA with Kim Hubbard (ex AS&TF then 1ARF) French Polishing Joe Lewis's library (A billionaire). Back to White Hart as Bar manager for 2 yrs, made redundant, set up own furniture restoration company for 6 yrs, offered job at Brize Norton went there as civvie for 6 yrs, took voluntary redundancy, did a Foundation Degree course on Environmental Conservation & Countryside management. Now works at Carsington Water fishery.

31/10/2009 - DICK SEDGEWICK

Left Abingdon in 1981.
Now works at Brize Norton for Serco.
Still has his own hair!

4/11/2009 - HUGHIE DEVINE

22/11/2009 - 'TEX' WAITE

FRS Sgt gang boss early 1979 to mid 1985

Worked at Avro/BAE Chadderton as a Prin. Pub's Engr (Tech Author) from 1990 to 2009.

Now retired & lives in Trowbridge with wife Chrissi.

29/11/2009 - DAVID LOWE

Was on RSS from 1980 until 1986.

Been in the USA since 2000
(at Boeing working on the 787)

13/12/2009 - NEIL SHANNON

Was one of the few Leckies on RSS.

16/12/2009 - PETE FREEMAN

Was a gang boss on 1ARF from Dec 1983 until Jul 1985 and then moved to Survey Flight until he left the RAF in July 1991.

Now works for Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge as the production Support Workshops Manager.

18/12/2009 - DAVE SQUIRES

Left RAF in 1981 to work in Brum and still there.

Retired 2005 and went straight back to work.

21/1/2010 - GORDON CHILDS

Gordon was with the MU from 1967 at 60MU Leconfield, 71MU Bicester & then ARF Abingdon.

06/5/2010 - BOB (Rob) AIERS

Rob was at Abingdon from 1980 to 1985 then from 1989 to 1993 & was the last serving member of RSS at Abingdon as his terminal leave started after the Camp was handed over to the Army. He worked on the lancaster In C hangar. He was NCO i/c of the fibre glass bay in 1993. He is writing a sitcom based on life on crash and smash and would like to find pictures of loaded aircraft on trucks, or find out what happened to the exhibits ... can anyone help?

28/5/2010 - STEVE SATCHWELL

Satch is currently the licensee of The Dominium Rock bar in Weston-Super-Mare.

28/5/2010 - CRAIG BOWRING

(Contacted via Facebook)

12/7/2010 - PETE LANE

Sgt teamleader on the Lancaster at Coningsby.
Got an exchange posting to St Athan in 1979.
Continued working at St Athan as a Civilian Technician., eventually becoming a PTO grade.
Escaped to Abbey Wood Filton Bristol.
Finished off his last years in the Civil service there as The Weapons Work-package Manager (HPTO) on the ‘V’ Class Submarines (A very strange career move but they were short of personnel).
Retired in 2008: now living in Wales.

22/7/2010 - TREVOR BROWN

Now living in West Sussex and working in Financial Services.

24/8/2010 - CRAIG GREGORY

Joined RSS, No.1 ARF in early 1982, stayed ‘on the road’ until 1988 then moved sideways to Repair Liaison as Bruce Kirkham’s sidekick. After a couple of years transferred to Eng Wg HQ as part of the IT set up as a member of a three-man team collectively known as ‘Computer Small Systems’ and oversaw the introduction of the early standalone PCs throughout the whole of the station.
Stuck it out at Abingdon to the bitter end in 1992 then went to Brize Norton, Visiting Aircraft Section.
Left the service in June 1997 having secured a place at university and is now a publisher of journals for the higher education academic market specialising in law and politics. Craig now lives in Buckland near Faringdon.

27/8/2010 - KEITH ALDERSON

Currently working in Saudi Arabia for BAE Systems.

28/8/2010 - MURRIE FRANKS

Contacted via facebook

17/4/2011 - CHRIS IRELAND

Left the RAF at the end of 1990, now works for BAE Systems in Australia.

17/4/2011 - GRAHAM LOWE

Was on ARF 1979 – 1984,
posted to Odiham November 1984.Abingdon

FRS (RSS) ARF 2 from 12/3/79 – 16/11/84
J/T – Cpl
Went onto 33 Sqn (Puma Helicopters) RAF Odiham
Left the Service as a Sgt (Redundancy Tranche 1) 2/5/93
Currently Freelance (Ltd – Glowe Services Ltd) maintenance consultant for both Rail and Aviation (Civil & military) industries, mainly in Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM & MSG3).

27/4/2011 - HOWARD RYNSTON

Was on Crash & Smash 1977-78

06/9/2011 - ROY FREW

Roy was on Crash & Smash and left the RAF around 1986, when he was 40 - he was living in Abingdon at the time.
After that he lived in Abingdon for a few years before signing up with BA. He left there and went out to California in about 1989 and then to Saudi Arabia and he was there when the Gulf War broke-out. He came home for a short time and then moved out to the Philippines and lived there for a time until Summer of 1996.

Sadly Roy died on 16th June 1996, a little short of his 50th birthday. The cause of death was Cancer.

Thanks to Roy's brother who passed this information on to Pete Lane, who passed it to me.

06/10/2011 - JON HOWELL

13/10/2011 - RON ASKEW-REEVES

Ron changed his name when he married Ann Reeves (who also served at Abingdon). Ron currently lives in Spain.

18/11/2011 - STAN JOHNSTON

Stan was at Abingdon from 1980 – 1986 and started on the road doing major repairs before transferring to F shed in late 81 where he finished his RAF career.

22/02/2014 - GERRY RICHARDS

Gerry was on FRS at Abingdon from March 1976 to May 1978 and again from June 1986 to 1992 on the Jaguars working in the hanger doing Jag Servicing and after a year into the Hyd bay servicing Jag Valves/Jack’s and Buccaneer bits & bobs and stayed there until the Station closed.

28/10/2015 - STEVE (STUMPY) STRIDE

Steve was on RSS during my time at Abingdon, and was originally on 71MU at Bicester.

CONTACTS FROM RAF BRIZE NORTON

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

CONTACTS FROM RAF COSFORD

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

CONTACTS FROM RAF COTTESMORE

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

17/4/2011 - CHRIS IRELAND

Left the RAF at the end of 1990, now works for BAE Systems in Australia.

CONTACTS FROM RAF HALTON

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

11/06/2009 - DAVID JONES

David was well known as a 'Cycling Fanatic' and it was his contact with me that inspired me to create this reunion site.

From Halton he was posted to RAF Abingdon in 1977 where he worked on RSS at the same time as Dave (Monty) Cowton

He emigrated to Australia in 1984 where he did a course in TV production and is now an Editor/Post Production supervisor on a kids' adventure show. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.

12/03/2010 - MIKE ANSTEE

Married to Laura, and has one grandchild.

Left the RAF Dec 2008 and now works for the Force India F1 team.

28/8/2010 - MURRIE FRANKS

Contacted via facebook

CONTACTS FROM RAF LEUCHARS

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

CONTACTS FROM RAF SWINDERBY

THEN		NOW

DAVE (MONTY) COWTON

11/06/2009 - DAVID JONES

David was well known as a 'Cycling Fanatic' and it was his contact with me that inspired me to create this reunion site.

He was posted to RAF Halton to train as an Airframes Fitter (ATechA) on AAD17 in 1977 then to RAF Abingdon in 1977 where he worked on RSS at the same time as Dave (Monty) Cowton.

He emigrated to Australia in 1984 where he did a course in TV production and is now an Editor/Post Production supervisor on a kids' adventure show. He lives in Perth, Western Australia.