As we were driving out of Northolt, come out, turn right
There was
seven or eight people deep,
all or all down the road,
And that's when
we were like, obviously we knew
It was big
and really big, but we were like,
Nothing will probably ever top it.
I was kind of oblivious to it
We lowered the coffin
and then out of the corner,
the Royal Family and
members of Parliament, etc.,
And I think, again,
knowing what social media is like now
no one wants a bad photo.
No one wants a picture that shows us
in a bad light.
We get scrutinized
So we just wanted to do everyone
proud of the RAF, proud
So it was a bit of a kind of
seeing the media.
It did
But then
again, you just
You're not really thinking about anything.
You're
where your hands are going to be,
you know, all these little things that
You're just you're
listening to the boss,
And it was just
you've got to just have tunnel vision,
block everything out and just listen
And so we
so we didn't
We didn't say anything.
But I didn't see any
until I was lower in the coffin.
And as I came down
the ramp, turn left
and the bearer party
OC
Hollinsworth gave the order to turn
As I was lowering,
and the only thing I could think of was
whoever's watching this
is watching you.
And it wasn’t nerve racking
because I actually I was
But that's kind of going through my head
And I'm like,
You're all over it.
Like you're all over TV screens now.
Like,
don't mess up
I block all that stuff out.
I think that comes from experience.
The senior officers and
and officers at work, they say, oh, don't
They'll be there, though.
But because
the experience is
just another day at the office for me,
But it's just another another job,
I feel
I'm going to repeat myself.
If you if you
went into a job of that magnitude
with pressure on yourself,
Personally, I just zone out
because you have to,
they’re just extremely emotional.
You just have to zone out
and you just have to get that task
you want to put on a good show
When we left RAF Northolt
for the 11 miles or whatever it is,
There wasn't one break in the roads.
Everyone throwing flowers
everyone clapping.
And that's when for me
it hit home of how overwhelming it was
And I won't be ashamed to say
I shed a little tear
Princess Anne was on there but
But once The Queen was taken off
once I came off the aircraft,
and I was met by the Chief of the Air Staff
well, the former Prime Minister
They were really happy
that was quite a good
But at that point,
you know, still