RAF Boulmer Gate Guard

[Gully]

Whilst up in Northumberland, Gill and I took a trip out to RAF Boulmer to see if anything was going on. Okay, we knew the only operational flying was likely to be the rescue Sea Kings, but we were rather surprised to see an F4 Phantom gate guard.

Can anyone shed any light as to why a Phantom is appropriate on their gate, please? The official base history doesn't really help! http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafboulmer/aboutus/rafboulmerhistory.cfm

Thanks,

Gully

PS. I have got a photo, but it's still in the camera!

[Xplumberlives]

You REALLY know how to show a girl a good time don't you!


I think the Phantom is relevant due to the Radar that was used from Boulmer to guide them to their intercepts.

[Checkflaps]

Gate guard at Boulmer.

You were actually at the admin site not the op site - as far as the radar goes. The ops site is on the road between Longhoughton and Almouth, about a mile away.

It is one of the Air Defence Phantoms and Boulmer is the main hub of the UK air defence system (not including Strike Command - or whatever they have now called it) due to Neatishead (home of the Air Defence Radar Museum) and Buchan both closing. This includes the bunker where the scopies sit and watch computers in darkness for hours, and also the school of fighter control where we were trained in how to sit in a bunker for hours looking at a computer screen . Lovely part of the world.

Have a nice break.

Garry

[Sploosher]

Gate guard at Boulmer.

You were actually at the admin site not the op site - as far as the radar goes. The ops site is on the road between Longhoughton and Almouth, about a mile away.

It is one of the Air Defence Phantoms and Boulmer is the main hub of the UK air defence system (not including Strike Command - or whatever they have now called it) due to Neatishead (home of the Air Defence Radar Museum) and Buchan both closing. This includes the bunker where the scopies sit and watch computers in darkness for hours, and also the school of fighter control where we were trained in how to sit in a bunker for hours looking at a computer screen . Lovely part of the world.

Have a nice break.

Garry

Didnt know you were a scopie CF.............

My eldest brother was and he was stationed at Buchan, Neatished and Fylingdales......

[Gully]

Thanks all.

@ Checkflaps - we actually went to both sites. The operational base for air sea rescue etc. is signposted as RAF Boulmer, whereas the radar station is signed RAF Boulmer Ops Site. The Phantom's on the gate of the operational base, not the Ops Site. In typical MoD fashion there are signposts everywhere indicating the importance of the hush hush Ops Site - 'Official Secrets Act - Strictly No Photographs' etc.

Gully

[Checkflaps]

Thanks all.

@ Checkflaps - we actually went to both sites. The operational base for air sea rescue etc. is signposted as RAF Boulmer, whereas the radar station is signed RAF Boulmer Ops Site. The Phantom's on the gate of the operational base, not the Ops Site. In typical MoD fashion there are signposts everywhere indicating the importance of the hush hush Ops Site - 'Official Secrets Act - Strictly No Photographs' etc.

Gully

I guess they relabelled the road signs. 10 years ago, it used to be known as the 'admin site'. Blimey, has it been that long I like the fact that they mention no photographs, irrespective of the fact that 90% of what goes on there is underground. I'll have to dig through my old pics from there and see if the 'toom has degraded like most gate guards seem to.

@sploosher.
Never made it completely to the dark side. Only got to 'play' at being a scopie for a while before I had to seek a different line of work - something about air safety , but I still have some very fond memories of Boulmer and the opportunities that being within the FC branch gave me.

As an aside, it is ironic that the Phantom apparently caused one of FC's most memorable, if not infamous, moments. As a 'perk', scopies were taken up for familarisation flights (more recently done in 100 Sqn Hawks ) to show them how the job of interception was actually done, usually with colleagues back in the bunker calling the shots. Anyway, long story short - the phantom returned to base with only the pilot in the cockpit.
The back seater had apparently (according to him) not touched a thing and somehow had been inadvetantly ejected from the a/c. - Really?