Call it fate if you like but there I was, Google-ing away, searching for some totally unrelated information for my job, and up popped this website. And what a hefty kick in the synapses and the few chunks of grey matter I have left this website has been. It’s been over twenty years since I left the branch. So long ago, in fact, that I was beginning to think that I had imagined the whole experience; leaving me with a sixteen year hole in my life that I couldn’t explain, convincingly, to anybody. But no more! A trip around this website has refreshed my memory. The names, events and chatter are so real and vivid it feels like it all happened yesterday. So much so, that I can feel the suppressed tension and excitement all over again. Thank you for the Classified Personal Announcements section which, although it conveys such sad news, also gives me the opportunity to remember and celebrate the lives of some of the warmest and most colourful people it’s been my privilege to know. Importantly, this website and the “Sub Brit” website have given me a past – a past that was largely unrecorded at the time; providing pictures and the history of places and things I’d heard about but never seen, visited at some time or occasionally served at. Both websites are, to me, the most phenomenal historical and personal resource. The only downside is that it provides me with material for too many stories over too many beers. However, my audience, besides being deeply sceptical about the work, cannot comprehend why anyone would volunteer for such a dark and stressful existence. And, I’m afraid, the stories are mostly met with lots of raised eyebrows, uncomfortable looks and a suggestion that more beer is required. We then move on to the next grossly exaggerated - but more believable - story from someone else. But it is difficult to describe how addictive adrenaline can be to people who have only done 9am to 5pm. As I now live in Sydney, I think the likelihood that I will be anything more than a very distant observer and very occasional “guest” on this website is remote but keep up all the good work.
Bernie O’Neill Flt Lt (Rtd)
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