MHAS Guest Book Archive - 2009

Note: email addresses have been modified to reduce 'harvesting' by spammers.

Date: 06th November 2009
Name: Heather
Email: hpeterson07(at)hotmail.com
Connection: Frequented in 1970's when hangar in use for aircraft repairs
Located now: Semi-retired and still local

Message: Would like to make contact with anyone who remembers me from those days please. Learnt to fly at Ipswich airport and did a parachute jump over Martlesham airfield when surrounded by gorse bushes! Friend of Robert Bearcroft - sadly now deceased but who will always be remembered, especially for certain daring airborne antics and as a glider tug pilot.
Would also like any news of Peter Collier who taught me to fly, last known living locally still. Many happy memories.

Date: 24th October 2009
Name: Stan Miller
Email: stan.miller(at)talktalk.net

Message: Still searching for ex-RAF personnel who were at Martlesham Heath the same time as me. I served at MH from April 1958 to January 1959 as an R/T.D/F Op.II in the homer south of the airfield and also in the control tower.
I remember the Hurricane and Spitfire of the BBMF and also the catastrophe at Kesgrave when an American Super Sabre F100 crashed there.
I was billeted on the upper floor of barrack block A, fronting the main road adjacent to the memorials.
Stan Miller
Membership No. 174
Herne Bay, Kent.

Date: 19th October 2009
Name: Keith Robinson
Email: keithbrentwood67(at)msn.com
Connection: Visited during summer

Message: Blakes Hall near Epping has closed down as a Museum and I have info that the exhibits moved to somewhere in Suffolk. This info was obtained from the present owner of the farm that RAF Willingale was. She lives in a house where the main gate for the base was. Any way does anyone there know where the exhibits have gone?

Date: 14th September 2009
Name: John Cooper
Email: johncooper131(at)btinternet.com
Connection: Briefly stationed here in 1960

Message: Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting the Tower on the open day again. Can I just say what a splendid effort that was put in to make this such a successful event, it goes without saying that without all the behind the scenes activity this event could not be held. Thanks to for the visiting flypast of the P51 and the Dak----memorable! :-)

Date: 14th September 2009
Name: Heather Foreman
Email: forman112(at)btinternet.com

Message: I am sorry to say I was really distressed and disgusted at the Open Day Sunday 13 Sept. 2009 at the condition of the third toilet which was not a flush toilet - I did not expect to find this in this day and age! It made me quite ill.

MHAS Response:

I would like to reply regarding the complaint made re. portable toilets at the MHAS "Open Day" on 13th September 2009.
All toilets were found to be clean hygienic and in good quality usable condition.
The toilet the complainant referred to was for disabled people only and this is why there was no flush system. It was a fluid system which carries more fluid in the pan which eliminates need for flushing.
The toilet for the disabled did not have a hand wash facility and this was noted only after the contractor had left the site. It was noted for future reference.
It was mentioned there was no toilet paper.There was in fact plenty of toilet paper and if this had been brought to a steward's attention it would have been remedied immediately.
If anybody finds there is a problem at any of our events, please contact an MHAS steward when he or she will get it resolved.

Robert (Bob) Dunnett
Vice Chairman MHAS

Date: 6th September 2009
Name: Jim Abels
Email: raven(at)paulbunyan.net
Connection: Son-in-laws father was stationed there in WWII
MH job: Retired USN
Located now: Just retired

Message: Am looking for any information on Lieut. Vernon J. Simmerman who was attached to the USAAF Fighter Squadron 359th flying the P-51 sometime after December 1943. Doing this research for my son-in-law Michael J. Simmerman.
Thank you for any help you can give me.

Date: 3rd September 2009
Name: andy palmer
Email: syband12(at)tadaust.org.au
Connection: A T C based in felixstowe
MH job: S A C.3years workshops raf oakington cambs
Located now: 114, Australia Ave., Umina Beach MSW 2257. Retired

Message: my first connection with Martlesham was around 1952 when in the ATC cadets. We learnt that we could get a free flight on a Saturday morning. My first was in an Anson aircraft, great. That's my connection to the early days.
Andy Palmer

Date: 7th July 2009
Name: Christina Catton
Email: christina.catton(at)gmail.com
Connection: My father was stationed there during WWII with the US AAC
Message: Hi there!

In the summer of 2004, my boyfriend (now husband) took me on a hunt to find Martlesham Heath - so I could see where my father was stationed during WWII. He was an pilot/engineer with the US Army Air Corps and wouldn't talk too much about the war, but I remembered the name, and off we went to search for some relic of my father's past.

Imagine his surprise when I posted him a card from Martlesham Heath! I was so moved by the experience - tracing my father's (possible) footsteps - way before me and way before my mother and was appreciative that you've made the tower into a museum and also erected a monument to the US and RAF men and women who served in that horrible war. My very brief trip there made me certain that I had to bring my father and mother there, so I could learn a little bit more about him and his experiences.

I honestly am not sure he'll share more experiences with me other than, "the boys we kept sending out in the planes kept getting younger and younger. We didn't have time to train them properly, we just took them around the airstrip a few times and they were off...." The implications stopped my heart.

It turns out my father and mother are at last coming to the UK. My mother wants very much to see Martlesham Heath and my father, too, is curious. I think.

So , I'm asking, is there anyone I can get in touch with who might be able to give us a tour? Are there any other WWII vets of the base still around? My father just turned 89, so I'm not sure how many more veterans of his tour of duty are around, but I want to make the effort to locate them.

P.S. My father's name is Laurence John Cass, Lt. Col, USAAC

Thank you!

Date: 04th June 2009
Name: Richard Kilday
Email: rj(at)kilday.wanadoo.co.uk
Connection: Both my mother and father were stationed here during WWII
Message:
My Mother was stationed at Martlesham heath from 1940 - Margaret Crow Kilday 427188 LACW - WAAF, from Alnwick Northumberland and my father, from 1943, - John T Sneddon SGT 678 AIR MAT SQ AAF from New Jersey USA.

Date: 16th May 2009
Name: John
Email: Booze352nd(at)Verizon.net
Connection: Tarkey Barker
MH job: 352nd Virtual Fighter Group
Located now: Annapolis, Maryland, USA
Message:
Hello all, I was referred to this wonderful website by Tarkey Barker, and what a great place you have here. My name is John but I go by 352ndBooze and am a member of the 352nd Virtual Fighter Group as well as being a member of the 352nd Fighter Group Association, The Bluenosers who flew out of Bodney.
Our group the 352ndVFG is a group of Flight Simmers from the ages of 18–72 who get together a few times a week and take to the Virtual Skies in a sim game called IL2.
We are in the process of recreating a map of The Channel to cover the Battle of Britain and a second map that will cover 1943–1945 with the airfields as they were late war.
We are currently recreating the airfields in the state they were during the Battle of Britain but have been having a difficult time finding the proper aerial photos or site plans or anything for that matter that would show the grass airfields as they were in 1940.
Tarkey is helping us with Martlesham Heath and hopefully we can coax him to share his knowledge of other airfields as well. But just wanted to drop in and say hello, introduce myself and tell you what a great job you have done with the website and your activities related to MH.
Best regards,
John :)

Date: 08th May 2009
Name: Alex James
Email: jalex(at)shaw.ca
Connection: I was stationed at martlesham to do my national service
MH job: Engine mech, Sac, BBU & BLEU, 1946-1948
Located now: 1760 Gonzales Ave ,Victoria.B.C. Canada
Message: I wonder where Michael Fox is? He used to live in Bossom, Sussex

Editor's Note: "Bossom" could be "Bosham"