EARLY CONFIDENCE
I recently enjoyed reading the article “Forget-meNots” in your winter edition of This England .It brought back many memories of my own National Service. Modern technology in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator system enables me to “fly” the famous Spitfire and look down on the house in > Thornton Heath where I spent the first 16 years of my life. As I look down at the scenery below and my former home, I can imagine a small boy in the 1940s looking up at the Spitfires and Hurricanes that flew overhead on their way to make landings in nearby Biggin Hill, Kenley and Croydon airfields. Later, during his grammar school years, he saw the early Meteors based at Biggin Hill flying over his home. Little did he know that a few years later at age 20 he would earn the coveted RAF Wings and be flying these early marks of the Meteor jet fighter himself.
At the end of my National Service, I emigrated to
Canada and joined the RCAF that led to another 34 years as an officer and pilot in the military. I enjoyed a very varied career in the RCAF and any success I had was down to the self-discipline and training I experienced during my National Service. Many of my contemporaries would not have missed National Service and although for many it was somewhat mundane, it helped us all to become aware of ourselves and our capabilities. It gave us all confidence to face life in the future and to cope with the ups and downs that were to come.
I should add that This England has provided me with a valuable link to the country of my birth for many years.
John Jackaman, Chilliwack, BC