Station Commander’s Foreword

Right from the beginning I talked about our Station responsibilities to SETT (Support, Equip, Train and Think) the FP Force for success – and I am proud that this is what we have indeed delivered. Of course this magazine is for the entirety of our community living and working at RAF Honington, regardless of your Service, uniform, civilian or contractor, Regular or Reservist, part-time or full time; and my second mantra of STOP; THINK; ACT applies to everyone all the time. While we will never know if this mantra has saved a life, I do know that its lack of use has, on occasion, led to bad and avoidable things happening.

When I took over we were still in lockdown and we had a difficult 6 months or so trying to manage the Covid pandemic; now we’ve just got used to living with it. OFSTED came, but gave us an extremely positive assessment validating the significant efforts of Training Wing and the Station-wide support.

It has been my regrettable honour to unexpectedly change into my No1s twice in my time to march out and lower our Ensign to pay our respects for the passing of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and then more recently Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and then play a significant part in the delivery of Op BRIDGE. Of course we also had recently celebrated Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee, with a superb parade in Bury St Edmunds, including our brilliant Voluntary band, and our Military Wives Choir performing on stage with Katherine Jenkins at Sandringham – fabulous!

As always people are responsible for the very highest highs and very lowest lows; our amazing people (you!) doing quite incredible things to support others, to volunteer, to raise money for charity, to lead and be utterly determined to make a difference to the lives of others. Our Band, our Heritage Centre, our sports, social and Mess Committees standout. I am proud of the development of our community, with communal BBQ areas, improved nature trail, allotments all now delivered and significant improvements to the experience of the Meiktila Mess just around the corner. Our infrastructure has taken a big step forward with more coming in the years ahead – and Amazon lockers are now here and ready for Christmas! Our Football team won the Cup, our ASTRA initiatives won awards and our standing across our entire region has gone from strength to strength. We are held in the highest regard.

We have also made superb progress reserving the tide of underinvestment in equipment, with Force Protection Experimentation putting real energy and substance into this, and our best in class lessons and learning providing the foundation for this journey – new equipment has already arrived and much more is right around the corner.

Of course all organisations must constantly evolve and develop, as to standstill is actually to go backwards. And therefore its timely for me to soon step aside and welcome Wing Commander Max Hayward as our new Station Commander from mid Jan 23 onwards; I wish him (and you all) every success for the future.

So finally, it only remains for me to offer you all my sincere thanks for your loyal service to RAF Honington, to Defence and to our nation, to wish you a happy festive period and a safe and productive 2023. Good luck and good fortune to you all. The privilege of a lifetime so ends.