18yrs old Dennis Aston was conscripted into National Service in 1956, serving as a fire fighter in the RAF for the next two years.  Looking back some 70yrs ago, Dennis recalls his eventful time in the RAF and concludes (in Part 2) that National Service in the Royal Air Force taught him key life-skills such as respect and discipline and have shaped the way he has lived his life since then. Dennis finishes the interview by saying “I thought it was wonderful.”

This is the second of a two-part interview carried out with Dennis in Sarnau, Ceredigion, on 18th September 1989 for Age Cymru Dyfed's HLF-funded National Service, Wales project which can be found on the West Wales Veterans Archive.

Dennis Aston 
National Service 1956-58
Royal Air Force
Interview Date: 18.9.25
Location: Sarnau, Ceredigion
Interviewer: Hugh Morgan
Camerman: Neil Davies

Interview Part 2: Written Description

Dennis describes living and working alongside American personnel on the site. During the period that the RAF firemen were readying the pipes for the FIDO “Burn”, USAF aircraft frequently took off and landed the F.86D Sabres, just 20feet away from the RAF fireman. In fact so close, that Dennis could read the name of each pilot written on the side of the cockpit e.g. “Lt….” and the pilot and he would wave to each other. He remembers “absolutely loving” this experience and describes the Americans at Manston being “fabulous people.”

Dennis recalls an incident when American fighters took off at night to explore reports of a UFO, a sortie mired in secrecy. On another occasion a B.17 Flying Fortress (a famous WW2 era bomber) landed at Manston ready to be scrapped. For many years Dennis kept the altimeter from the cockpit instrument panel of this particular aircraft, and his mate Wally had the aircraft’s dinghy. 

Fire crew and vehicles would be located at the end of the runway, ready to be called upon should an aircraft be in difficulty on landing and take-off. On one tragic occasion the wingtip of a RAF twin-engined Vickers Varsity coming into land, caught the ground and somersaulted, bursting into flames. The American fire engines got to it first, firing foam onto the aircraft, smashing the cockpit window but their fire crew would not enter the blazing aircraft. Dennis’s Sergeant shouted at the Americans crew try to rescue the crew on board the Varsity, but they would not. Dennis believes that this reflected American fire crew training who had been instructed not to try to save a crew in those situations where it might put their own lives at risk, with a consequence this may also have an impact upon their service-career and their families. 

As a result, Dennis’s Sergeant took it upon himself to smash his way with an axe to access the aircraft attempting to reach the aircraft’s crew. He believes there were five on board. Dennis was the first one to enter the aircraft with his friend Ginger Rollason. They found two of the crew sitting in their cockpit seats which Dennis describes as a “terrible” sight and he was “sick for days after that.” Dennis refers to the investigation which then followed. 

Many years later in civilian life, Dennis was unexpectedly asked to do some work for a funeral director, which brought the memory of the Varsity crash back to him. He remarks  just how much he was ‘taking in and learning’ during his time in the RAF, which years later came to the fore.  Dennis also refers to the fact he always wears a shirt and tie when going to the pub today in Aberporth and says that the little things which were learned during National Service in the RAF ‘stick with you.’ 

Dennis believes that a big mistake made was made when the government stopped National Service, for he firmly believes that National Service in the Royal Air Force taught him key life-skills such as respect and discipline and have shaped the way he has lived his life since then. Dennis finishes the interview by saying “I thought it was wonderful.”