So I'm part a ceremonial training team.
So I was in my office getting kit ready for personnel
that were coming down from 34 Squadron,
and my flight sergeant came and he said you needed in the lecture room.
So I went to the lecture room
There was the bearer party standing there
And they also lots officer and the CEO commander were like, you are the bearer party.
You are going to be doing that. So we are all out.
Oh, wow.
Massive honour.
I think there was a lot of
meetings of higher ranks
going on behind closed doors, which is
fair enough.
A couple of hours went by, I think at that time in a bit concurrent,
um, activity with prepping my kit just in case for what
I knew I'd be a part of
the job, whether that be bearer party
or the guard of honour that was took place at Northolt.
Yeah.
Got called into the lecture room,
was told you're on the bearer party.
You know, it was a it was a massive honour.
It was
we weren't really allowed
to tell friends or family until afterwards, obviously.
But I rang my wife and I said, you know, I'm going out to Scotland and
went back for a few days.
And I think she knew straight away and, you know, she was crying and it was like
you could just sense the occasion and it was
something it was it was going to be historic.
Whatever happened.
And to be a part of it was unbelievable
So there’s the officer in charge of the air bearer party which was me
warrant officer, warrant officer Martin who's the, it was the Queen's Colour squadron,
now King’s Colour Squadron warrant officer there's an eight bearers
who bear a royal coffin
as opposed to six for a non-royal
And then we had two reserves as well, and a sergeant,
Sergeant Sean Newton, who's my tech sergeant for my flight
who deployed with us to ensure that we had all the CSS needs
were all met and that sort of the support needs that we had to be able to deliver.
It's all about teamwork.
It's about trusting each other.
The mechanics are pretty simple for us.
As long as we just listen to the boss,
as long as the boss gets it right, we're in the right position.
And then it's just all about teamwork and being adaptive, really,
because everyone's different, every coffin's different.
Um, every situation is different, every location's different.
So it was just adapting to your surroundings, really,
and just go in with your gut feel and your experience.
The first time I'd ever
carried a coffin in the military, which is a big thing.
Um, so training wise, the squadron,
like I said, the squadron hold the readiness for operation, obviously.
So in the hangar we've got a mock up of the ramp of a C-17.
So we kind of got used to of what, what, what it's like to carry in a coffin down
the ramp, carrying a coffin up the ramp.
And then obviously once
we were selected, it was kind of the bearer party
off you go, practice.
However, you need to practice
and be ready for the day.
Done a few a few jobs.
whilst I have been on the squadron, but obviously nothing to the magnitude of the
Her Majesty's funeral.
So but we do plenty of training.
We train week in, week out, in preparation for those occasions.
So everyone is well prepared, everyone's well trained and ready for the job.
At work in the hangar, we have a weighted coffin and
a mock
aircraft ramp and we have a hearse as well.
Practice with that.
So we just practice in day in, day out, just taking the coffin
from the hearse onto the ramp, simulating putting it onto the catafalque
taking it off the catafalque off the aircraft down the ramp into a hearse
all day, every day.
Just practice and practice.
And then even when we got
got there on the Sunday, I think it was more of a bed then relax.
And then on Monday we out of rehearsal was actually at the airport
and then
seeing the aircraft, obviously we had an A400 ramp,
but that being done on a C-17, just so get to look out what
the difference was between the two ramps and if it was going to cause any dramas.
But luckily there was no issues
The people who were chosen for
this particular job were kind of scattered throughout the flights.
But we all know each other well.
You know, we all, you know, socialize together.
And it wasn't difficult for us to,
you know, put it together and and become the team that we needed to be.
And we rehearsed for it a lot.
It's something we've been preparing for for years, but way before I got there. So
in that sense, yeah,
it was it was relatively easy to to come together as one.