Hand in your Flying Gear!

If you had to hand in your flying kit, it meant you were going overseas. And there were a few cheerful and some gloomy guys standing around there and I’d gone through the other sections and up to the steward and I went in and there was a flight sergeant there and I said, “Am I on that list? ” There were 11 going overseas out of 44. I said, “Am I on that list? ” And I said, “Smith RIA is the way you get, Smith RIA,” my initials RIA and he said, “No!” But you get used to reading your name upside down when you’re in the ranks in the service and things like that and I looked and I said, “Isn’t that it? ” And he said, “Oh yes! Hand in your flying gear!” Boy, was I, oh that was the biggest prize to go overseas because you see they’d take the other 33 and they had to go and be instructors and be staff pilots in bombing and gunnery schools and they wouldn’t get overseas for two and a half years if they got over at all. So here… that was the prize.