They reckon the weakest link in the whole thing was that only
the captains had been trained in air-to-air refueling
We haven't got time to train up the copilot.
And so really
the risk was that the captain would be so tired
for the end of all this trip, all the air to air refueling, because
that's at some point he's either going to fail
was going to break the probe off or something.
So they decided that the poor air-to-air refueling instructors
who would go with the crew they'd instructed.
So they knew one another
and so poor old Dick on his 50th birthday.
Never been to war before.
He was absolutely horrified
because he thought he was just joining a reserve team.
But poor old Dick was sitting there on the back in the dark.
Nothing to do sitting on his parachute,
dreading every second of it.
And he was hearing all these screams and yells coming in,
and he thought his number was up.
And I felt really, really sorry for him because I would have hated to be in.
His situation is not about sitting in ejection seat in control of think,
but this poor guy.
It was a very poor 50th birthday present that
we relied very heavily on him during the flight.
I was more practice at
refueling, actually getting
a joint, joining up and so on.
But he was very good at sitting there, holding it in
So...
well after the attack, when it was all satisfactory.
I went down the back and had to sleep for about four hours.
Slept like a baby because I'm so pleased
that I was still alive and all the rest of it.
And I then had to be woken up by one of the naps
that I was needed there.
So and I
went up the little ladder goes up to this, the seats.
I just stood on the ladder and looked at the fuel gauges,
and they were about as low as I've ever seen them.
While one is in the air, I don't the numbers this.
I didn't know how far it was.
We had to go, but we were getting close to joining up with the other Victor and
they were meant to be sending two out
to bring us home,
but another one to on unserviceable.
So they only had one so that we clambered into the seat.
The two pilots who've been there have been juggling the fuel around, as I described
to you, to make sure that we could make absolute best use of every ounce
of fuel.
And I climbed into the seat.
And by that time, they were already talking to the Victor
who was actually coming south to meet us.
We were running late, so he made it easier for us.
He was actually coming further down to two meet us.
And by this time of daylight, the first time we met
and I still remember vividly that we would, we did a...
or he did a perfect join up that we do actually have a
tech and tactical navigation on each aircraft.
And you can actually tell ranges with one another.
So as you're coming in,
he would actually know him coming straight at him several miles.
I don't know where it is now, but he would start his turn set
and it actually worked out a treat that we would coming up behind
and could see this thing turning in the blue sky
with the hose trailing behind.
I say it the most beautiful sight in the world.