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RAF Moldeyhole


DC10FE
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I was stationed there with 5th Aerial Port in '73-'74. Married an English girl (we were married in the Mildenhall Chapel) - we just celebrated our 41st Anniversary in October.. Many memories for sure: "J" Block, the Base Theater (sneaking wine in with boda bags)...

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Heart broken to hear this news. So, so many great memories...... Bravo Rote in 75... stopping in multiple times during Delta Rote in 76... arriving at the Port for my PCS tour with the 67th ARRS at Woodbridge... flying in the Air Fete... flying in from the Rock and having my girl friend greet me when I got off the crew bus at Base Ops... arriving at the Port Space A a few months later in order to wed said girlfriend... waiting at the Port for Space A with my new bride and 2 parachute bags full of wedding gifts and seeing the look on her face when she climbed up into a 141 for the ride to Dover with an HR up front... in and out of MHZ on many, many occasions while flying with the 37th out of RM... 4 absolutely amazing years with 5th MAPS... moving the AD Flight from Alconbury to MHZ into the old 5th MAPS building... on and on. Was just there last April to meet with the AD Flight and it was so nice to be amongst them and share stories about the "good old days". And bloody good they were too.

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My wife is especially disappointed with this news. While I was doing a tour at RAF Lakenheath she, as a civilian, worked at Mildenhall in what was then the 513th Supply Sqd. Because of this we connected equally with Lakenheath and Mildenhall. Many friends at both bases.

Not unusual to reconnect with a past 36/37 TAS member on rote. After which there was almost always an over indulgence of food and drink. Usually at the Mildenhall Top Four. As I look back I think I have to rate this club as one of the better ones in the air force. As they began a major renovation and began uncovering structure they discovered deficiencies that prompted the engineer to remark he was surprised the building hadn't already collapsed. Not that anyone would have noticed at 0200 on a Saturday night. :D

Great place..sorry to see it go.

Congestion at Ramstein to get even worse. Anyone remember when Ramstein was an out of the way small sleepy F-102 base? And the ramp was such that with three or perhaps four big airplanes parked it was full.

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I did 2 2-month rotes there, in 70 and 72 and a couple of short ones plus a lot of overnights. I'll miss it.

We used to hang in a pub long since gone the Volunteer Arms. Also the Bell in MLD and the Bull in Barton Mills.

Great base, great people.

Too bad the fighter pewks won again. They wanted to keep Spang open and could not justify it with only one squadron of F-16's.

They didn't want to send the Spang F-16's to Aviano, so voila close Mldenhall.

Can you imagine the mess when Spang and Ramstein are closed at the same time for fog.

Oh well at least they saved the USAFE Band.

Bob

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I recall a day in the early 60s when almost the entire continent was socked in. That day Hahn lost six F-100s. The fallout was the wing got a new commander and everyone who worked for him.

Subsequently the air force installed a series of gas jets off the approach end of the runway. In foggy conditions these gas jets would be fired up burning the fog off.

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Here I go hijacking my own thread. A few years ago, I learned that members of the USAF bands enter the Air Force as TSgts and bypass the usual basic training. Check out some UTube videos of the band -- they're almost all Top 3. WTF?

OK, back to Moldyhole. I wonder if the RAF will move in? I'm sure Brize Norton is pretty crowded with the C-130's & C-17's based there.

Don R.

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Now that really frosts my cookies. Never could understand how the AF could justify having more than 1 band and that one could either be contracted out to professional musicians, or be a primary mission of the AF Academy, or several ROTC units around the country. And don't get me started on the Singing Sgts, Tops in Blue, etc. or any of the other uniformed entertainers wasting taxpayers money.

I remember being launched one night on Quick Alert, during a Bravo Rote and how we busted our humps to get airborne within the USAFE required 1 hr. window. We were briefed at Ops. to proceed with all speed available to Moron AB. Enroute we speculated that we must be moving some sort of spook unit on a classified mission. Upon arrival at dawn we were told by MAC Ops. that the T-29 moving the USAFE Band to Kenitra Morocco was tits-up and that our mission was to get them transported in time for the Marine Corps Ball being held that night. Needless to say we were pissed off.

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Yeah,E6, a great place to start.Reminds me of a Tech. with 11 years TIG.Made master and said at roll call on the day of his promotion " When I made Tech. and the orders said permanent,I didn't think it was going to be this permanent".

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While on rote to Mildenhall one time, my plane and two others were selected to fly the AF band around Europe. We were gone a few weeks. Rome, Venice, Bern Switzerland, Copenhagen, and others. We were required to wear civies, not uniforms or anything military. Great duty.

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OK I give up.

Is Moldeyhole a town near the base, or a reference to something else?

Bob, RAF Mildenhall is named for the nearby town of Mildenhall

Moldyhole is GI slang for RAF Mildenhall that has to do with the generally lousy English weather. Cold, wet, lots of mildew. Often on a rare cloudless sunny day the highway asphalt would remain moist. On the rare occasion the temperture would reach 75 the locals would begain to suffer heat prostration.

To this day when I get up, look outside only to find it's a lousy day, I remark to my wife, "ah, a typical beautiful English day".

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I remember a rote in the summer of 1976, it did not rain one day while I was there -- although I wasn't there that much. That's the rote I spent celebrating America's bicentennial drinking Heniken beer at the US Consulate in Dharahran, Saudi Arabia. If I remember correctly, the next day, we loaded up the airplane with all the empties (there were a lot) and dropped them in the middle of the desert.

Don R.

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