Thursday 14 August 2014

Feeling Blue




This week's Sepia Saturday prompt is a photo of American soldiers under a banner exhorting them to write home in WW1,  with pen and paper, sitting  at tables in a wooden hut.  This caught my imagination, because - I was that soldier.  Or rather, strictly speaking, I was an RAF officer, some 68 years later in the Falkland Islands, but there were some similarities.  In my time in the Falklands (4 years after the war, I'm not stupid) it was almost impossible, and very expensive to phone home, and my state-of-the-art computer, a Sinclair Spectrum, hadn't even a word processor, let alone a method of communicating over the internet.  In dire emergency, we could use military satellite communications, but that was only  for reporting life-changing events.  So, we relied on the exchange of air mail letters, and cards.  The air mail letters were universally referred to as blueys - for obvious reasons (see picture below).  Twice a week, an RAF Tristar aircraft arrived from RAF Brize Norton bringing new personnel, and taking those home whose tour was over. It also brought a load of supplies, technical, administrative, and domestic as well as the mail.  Now, I would like to say that the mail was the most eagerly awaited thing to come of the aircraft, but in truth that was the FNG, the Falklands New Guy, who had come to replace you, and who was taken aback by the affection with which he was greeted, because it meant you were going back on the plane's returning flight!  However, the mail was a close second. I suspect most mail going home was full of brave talk about military and sporting things, interspersed with matters of the heart.  The incoming mail was much more personal, and was eagerly devoured for news of family and friends.  The lack of communication made it difficult for wives, who had to act as mother and father, and solve all the problems themselves, because 8000 miles away, we couldn't help.  My wife, Little Nell, bravely carried the secret of my father's impending death from cancer for weeks until I got home, when she could tell me face to face, because at that distance, I could have done nothing except fret.

Cards were normally more cheerful, showing Falklands scenes - penguins and seals mainly, but unlike blueys were not free to buy or to post.  In my role as the chief aircraft engineering officer for the RAF in the Falklands, I was privileged to fly all over the Islands in a variety of helicopters.  I was there for the Islands' summer, and while it did snow sometimes, and rarely got above 20 degrees C, the sun shone most days, and flying over the beautiful islands and seeing the wildlife was a great treat.  Consequently, the two cards below, piled on top of a bluey, with pictures of Gentoo and Magellan penguins, both of which species I'd seen, and smelled, at close quarters.






The picture of me sitting on the ramp of a Chinook helicopter on Sea Lion Island is, I admit, a bit posed, but it was a genuine bluey I was writing, as I wrote on the back of the photo "Me writing the 'It's lunchtime and I'm looking at Elephant Seals...'  bluey".



Join us on Sepia Saturday  to see what others have made of the prompt.








17 comments:

  1. You look like you're sitting in the jaws of a great white shark.

    Now see, you've ruined those war movies for me -- I thought for sure MAIL was the important thing. I don't think I've ever seen the arrival of the FNG depicted in a movie.

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    1. True, Wendy, but you would get blueys every week, you only got one FNG!

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  2. A bluey - never heard of aerogrammes called that, but it certainly is an apt description. Very interesting story.

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  3. I agree with Wendy - I had to look twice at that picture of you to make sure just where you were sitting! I could have empathized with Nell just a tiny bit. My husband was often off on forest fires during the summer for 2 & 3 weeks at a time with no warning ahead of time (often he'd get a call, grab his pre-packed bag, & be gone in the middle of the night) & no communication possible while he was gone - leaving me responsible for 3 little kids, the house and everything else until he came home. Usually I'd get a call from the office to let me know when to expect him home, but that was all. Not nearly what Nell had to go through with you gone so far away for so long. But you do what needs to be done & you discover you're much stronger than you ever thought you were! :))

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  4. Enjoyed your reminiscences of this time and the final photo is right on topic for this week.

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  5. Yes, and that’s MY Valentine’s Day Bluey and the only one we’ve kept. The penguin cards were newsy letters to my parents.

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  6. The blueies are much bluer than the airmail letters I remember seeing here. The name sounds kind of comical--it made me think of the Blue Meanies.

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  7. How nice to have a post from the letter writer complete with photo and the stories behind the letters - even if the photo was posed!

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  8. It looks like you are sitting in the mouth of a whale. How nice to have a view of the letter writing from a soldiers point of view.

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  9. I hate to admit I'd never heard of a Sinclair Spectrum but once I looked it up and realized it was similar to our Commodore 64, I could put it into perspective. It must have been pretty snazzy to have any kind of home computer in those days.
    "Bluey" was a new term for me too - really enjoyed reading about it. Very interesting post.

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  10. Well yesterday's comment seems to have gone off into the wild blue yonder. I simply said that it looked like a whale, Shades of Jonah. A very interesting read.

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  11. Wow, how incredible! It does appear you're sitting in the mouth of a whale!

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  12. A terrific description on letters and the post during military service. In the 50s and 60s my dad used a small reel to reel tape recorder and then later a cassette recorder. The results were often rambling but always fun to hear his voice. We'd do the same and send back our audio letters to him.

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  13. The Chinook helicopter photo looks like you are being swallowed by a whale! I enjoyed your story of receiving the letters home vs. the other way around. It's interesting hearing it from that perspective. Now I need to go ask my mom if she has any of Dad's letters when he was in Vietnam.

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  14. I hadn't heard of this type of "Bluey" previously either.

    I agree with Wendy, my first thought was whale not shark though!

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  15. Having memories about those times as led through letters and photographs is one thing. To have been THERE is quite another.

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  16. We are so fortunate these days aren't we with our instant communication. When it is denied to us for some reason or other (lack of phone reception or whatever) we are so cross and impatient. I used to use aerogrammes a lot when we were overseas to write to family and friends or vice versa. No need these days of course but I wonder if we write less well or carefully as a result.

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