PREVIEW
For most of us who became the 105th Entry of Aircraft Apprentices, the Ton 5s, our first real look at RAF Halton came through the windows of an RAF bus, bringing us on a day visit from the Apprentice Selection Centre at RAF Cardington in Bedfordshire.
The adventure had actually started for me about four months previously, after having applied for an RAF Apprenticeship, while doing 'O' levels at school, I also had to sit several entrance exams at the RAF Careers Information Centre in Edinburgh. Along with this came the mandatory Medical Exam, which was conducted by a Scottish Army MO, and a distinctly stroppy medical orderly, also somewhere in Edinburgh. Having got through all that lot, I was invited to attend the Apprentice Selection Centre , somewhere around the beginning of September 1963. For many boys attending this selection, it was their first foray away from home, and no MUM to look after them. The first day was taken up with Aptitude tests, you know those things where you have to say what comes next in the sequence and what shape is next etc. In the evenings we were left to amuse ourselves in the NAAFI, and it seemed there was always someone willing to tell jokes . I will always remember Jim Soothill telling a story about cabboges, yes that's right cabboges. You see for most of us, it was our first exposure to so many different accents, and there were quite a few, from us Scots, the Geordies, the Irish and the West Country (HI there Laurie Poulter !!!), (and after a gentle reminder from an unnamed source, I have to say the Welsh were well represented too).
The second day saw us off to Halton for a look around. I don't remember much about it, except it seemed to be more a case of the other entries looking us over (potential victims ?) than us looking over what could be our home for the next 3 years (selection process permitting).
The third and last day was all interviews. I seem to remember 3 in all. One was to discuss the results of the Entrance Exam and any 'O" level results (which of course had been sent out only a week before the selection board). One was to discuss your choice of trade, made during the aptitude tests on the first day, and compare whether your aptitude, choice of trade and scholastic efforts all matched the necessary criteria. If you got past those two you were asked in for the 3rd and last interview. At the end of that, we were sent home to wait for the letter to arrive informing us of our success or failure.
Lo and behold, I got through,( Obviously, or this wouldn't be getting written) and I was 'invited' to present myself at RAF Halton on the 17th September for enrolment on the 18th. On arrival at RAF Halton on the 17th, I met up again with several of the lads I had met at Cardington, Henry Keenan (from Edinburgh) the aforementioned Soothill and in all about 180 hopefuls (or innocents) little aware of what the next 3 years would bring.