Andrew Darroch was born in 1959 Luton to Glaswegian parents, unaware that the street he was growing up in was considered underprivileged even in a still battered and war damaged town. The sense of family and friendship infusing the community more than compensated for any lack of material wealth, and along with the relaxed attitude to parental control which characterised the sixties and seventies made for a rich, varied and adventurous childhood, with kids roaming far and wide across the town and occasionally getting into mischief. Despite everything, he eventually grew up and joined the RAF at the age of 20.
The gates of RAF Swinderby were the entrance to an alien world in the eyes of a young man with no previous military experience, and arrival there came as a shock to the senses; a shock which the instructors did their level best to maximise, by giving every instruction and making every observation in...
