What does it mean to be an RAF Padre?
In this week’s InsideAIR episode, we speak with Padre Ashley Mitchell to discover how RAF Chaplains support personnel whether or not they have a faith or religion.
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Inside Air Transcript 151
Please note that this transcript is automatically generated, and may have some errors. The original audio is the authoritative wording.
Narrator: Standby for broadcast. Standby for broadcast. You're listening to Inside Air, a behind the wire view of the Royal Air Force, its people, technology and operations.
Flight Lieutenant Chris Sully: Hi, I'm Flight Lieutenant Chris Sully, and welcome to the latest RAF Inside Air podcast. In this episode, we'll be talking RAF Padres. On ops, they wear the same uniform, they live in the same conditions, and they share the same risks, but they go unarmed. That is, perhaps except for a bag or two of Haribo.
Padre Ashley Mitchell: It's remarkable. I was I was at a function a while ago and one of the musicians came up to me and said, "Were you our padre when I was going through recruit training at RAF Halton?" And I said, "I think I probably was." And I wanted him to say, "Yes, I remember you giving me a wonderful presentation on just war theory in the tradition of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas." But he didn't. He said, "I remember you coming to Bramley Training Area and giving us Haribo at just that moment when we felt like giving up, and it enabled us to keep on going."
(Talking about St Clement Danes)
It's a beautiful building, and it's a reflection of the Royal Air Force. It is a historical building, and there are some structural issues.
Those structural issues are being addressed, but being a heritage building, they're not things that you can address really quickly. Our role is very broad, providing support to personnel pastorally is key for us. We also help to form minds and thoughts about beliefs, values, meaning, and purpose.
Corporal Neil: Once again, we'll also reheat a few stories which could have slipped under your radar, and we'll be finding out who's under the hat this week with AS1 Ben Russell.
AS1 Ben Russell: What bit of luxury kit do you never deploy without?
Under the hat: Oh, it's got to be noise-canceling headphones, I think.
Flight Lieutenant Chris Sully: This week, corporal Neil speaks with Padre Ashley Mitchell, Associate Chaplain at the Central Church of the RAF St. Clement Danes, to find out how [00:02:00] RAF chaplains support RAF personnel, whether or not they have a faith or religion.
Corporal Neil: I'm at a very special place for the RAF family. It couldn't be farther away from where most RAF personnel spend most of their time.
It's not a station in Lincolnshire, nor an austere base in a far corner of the globe. St Clement Danes Church sits on the Strand in central London. To cross its threshold is to leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind and enter a place of peace and quiet. Barely a faint hum of traffic permeates its thick walls.
The roots of this place go back 1,000 years, and it has risen from the ashes of the Great Fire and the Blitz to become a perpetual shrine of remembrance for the [00:03:00] Royal Air Force. The church holds the books of remembrance to all of those RAF personnel who died in service during the Second World War.
There are no services at the church today, but yet it still sees a steady flow of visitors who have come not only to admire this stunning Wren-designed place of worship, but to remember the sacrifice made by members of the Royal Air Force and Britain's allies in defence of freedom.
There's no more fitting place to talk about RAF chaplaincy than in the RAF's church, and I'm joined by the Reverend Ashley Mitchell. Padre, thank you for inviting Inside Air to the beautiful St Clement Danes.
Padre Ashley Mitchell: You're very welcome.
Corporal Neil: At some point during every RAF recruit's phase one training, the padre arrives for what I might describe as a robust chat.
It becomes immediately clear that this man or woman is far from a home county's vicar. Who are the padres and what's their role?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Our role is broad. We come from a huge variety of backgrounds. We come from a huge range of faiths, and indeed we're looking to be inclusive of those who don't identify with faith in particular.
Our role is very broad, providing support to personnel pastorally is key for us. We also help to form minds and thoughts about beliefs, values, meaning and purpose, and how we can go about serving with integrity in all that we do.
Corporal Neil: And where does the name padres come from?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Padre is curious because nowhere in the official documentation of the military is the word padre actually written down.
It comes from the Peninsular War in the early 19th century [00:05:00] when British troops were in conflict with Napoleon's troops, and some of the soldiers noticed in Iberia, so Spain, Portugal that people called their priest padre, which of course simply meant father. They thought it was quite a good nickname, and they started using it to address the chaplain in their units by calling them padre.
And I think it's a quite wonderful phrase. It has a sort of avuncular angle to it that is both respectful but also quite warm and close. So for example, at RAF Halton where I worked for a great many years, we were the only commissioned personnel they could call by our first name, provided they prefaced it with Padre Ashley, Padre Michael, or Padre Kevin.
And I think that created a close but also quite distinct relationship between us and the recruits that we were supporting.
Corporal Neil: And you mentioned the word distinct there, and I'm keen to dwell on that for just a moment. How do Padres come to RAF chaplaincy? What is their religious background? That's something else that sets them apart.
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think it's a sense of calling. As I said, from a wide variety of traditions, we have a large number of chaplains who are from a Christian tradition, but we also have commissioned chaplains from the Muslim, the Sikh, and the Jewish tradition, and also supporting chaplains from other faith groups. And as I said, we are exploring opportunities for people from a non-faith background to also have a pastoral role within chaplaincy of the Royal Air Force.
Corporal Neil: So how did you come to RAF chaplaincy yourself?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: It was a long time ago. I was serving as minor canon of a cathedral in North Wales, and I got a phone call, and I thought to myself I don't want to be 40 sitting in a rectory in Mid Wales thinking I wish I'd done this." So it was a chance and opportunity at age 28 [00:07:00] to receive a commission as a chaplain, and for the last 28 years or so, that's been my role and my purpose. It's been incredibly demanding, fulfilling, exciting, and rewarding at the same time.
Corporal Neil: Now, everyone remembers a, a time in their military career when they've been in the field, possibly damp, wet, and otherwise miserable, and the padre has arrived with deep pockets full of sugary sweets. It's possibly become a, a bit of a meme nowadays, and I'm not sure how much padres like to lean into it. But what about your background and that of your fellow padres makes you ideal for handing out Haribo?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think you need to have a love for people, a love for their hearts, their souls, and their bodies, and their futures and their opportunities. And I think it's remarkable. I was I was at a function a while ago, [00:08:00] and one of the musicians came up to me and said, "Were you our padre when I was going through recruit training at RAF Halton?"
And I said, "I think I probably was." And I wanted him to say, "Yes, I remember you giving me a wonderful presentation on just war theory in the tradition of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas." But he didn't. He said, "I remember you coming to Bramley Training Area and giving us Haribo at just that moment when we felt like giving up, and it enabled us to keep on going."
So if... and there's a sense there where what's our role? It's to keep people going. It might be through the Holy Scriptures. It might be through Holy Communion. But sometimes it's through something as simple as a piece of fantastic Haribo that we're sharing when people just need that little bit of encouragement Might be the sugar that keeps you going or just that gesture of, "We're here with you and we're supporting you."
Corporal Neil: And what training goes [00:09:00] into enabling you to be the Haribo man? Or is it just something that's within you from the start?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think, you always... Your, your mission is to be out there with people. I remember when I was a curate in Wales I would go to the farmer's market and just chat to the farmers about what's going on in their lives, ask them if it's bad or very bad because no Welsh farmer was ever gonna say it was good.
But that's wanting to connect with people's real lives, their working lives, the trials and the challenges, not just of people who came through the doors of church on a Sunday, but to get out into their world and live their life. And that's the great joy and privilege of being a chaplain, being a padre, is that you go where the troops go.
The curious thing is that they go armed and we go unarmed, unless you regard Haribo as a, an armament or a form of protection. And I think there's something very significant there. We're exposing a vulnerability. Why would anyone go into a combat zone without a weapon? And the reason is because of the message and the ministry that we hold.
Corporal Neil: Sure. And you talked about going into people's lives, their real lives and helping them where possible. What type of welfare support do padres across the RAF provide on a day-to-day basis?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think the most important thing we have is time. I try to go out of my way not to appear to be busy because people who are busy don't get bothered because they go, "Oh, he's very busy.
I won't bother him." So I try to always give the impression that I've got all the time in the world for everyone even though I'm pedaling very hard under the surface. So I think the great gift that we have is that we have time. And our role, people sometimes say to me, "Padre, what do you do?" And I say I walk around a lot, I talk to people, and I drink cups of tea."
And they go, "What do you really do?" This is what I really do. I walk around, talk to people, and drink cups of tea. I think part of our role is walking beside [00:11:00] people, or indeed, when I was doing recruit training at Halton, running beside people on a stretcher run around Wendover Woods and encouraging them to keep on going, one foot in front of the other, one step at a time
Corporal Neil: And when you're running, is it always beside them or is it behind them or is it in front of them?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I used to always choose the stretcher run. It was usually on day 40 or 42 at Halton, and I had the feeling that being age 54 or 55 at the time, if they were carrying a 100 kilogram stretcher, I could probably keep up.
Corporal Neil: Good for you. Good for you. And I'm sure there's a religious metaphor in there somewhere. I think- Pos- possibly one for a future sermon?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Absolutely.
Corporal Neil: Okay. So- During your time in the RAF, it's been 30 years-
Padre Ashley Mitchell: N-nearly, yep ...
Corporal Neil: since you were a, a, a 28-year-old man in North Wales [00:12:00] looking possibly for something else to do with ministry.
During that time, the society seems to have become more agnostic less rooted in religion. Of course, there's a ceremonial aspect to your role, which will always be rooted in faith. A Remembrance Sunday, which is coming up, obviously, is the most obvious example, and we'll always need a padre in the RAF.
That's for certain. But has the changing nature of society affected other aspects of your role?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think I would say that chaplaincy has changed dramatically in the time that I've been serving, but in an actually very unusual way. When I joined, our major theater of operations was the Balkans and Northern Ireland, and I served in both.
But it changed very dramatically after 9/11 with Iraq and Afghanistan, and we faced quite significant conflicts [00:13:00] with some very grave injuries, and the pastoral role and the spiritual role of chaplains really came to the fore in those conflicts. We were very much deployed forward wherever the troops went to, wherever the aviators went to.
We were flying around Lashkar Gah and Kandahar on the Chinooks and flying in and out of Basra, daylight descent into Basra Airport, almost vertically flying into the ground before you suddenly pulled out and landed. All of those things really focused the risk, the danger. I remember once being-- talking to some parents, and they said, "Our daughter's a nurse in the RAF, and she's in Basra.
And she always came to church with us as a child, but when she grew up she moved away from the church. And when she was in Iraq, we were terribly worried about her safety." And then one day on the telephone, she said, "Oh, the padre popped in to the med center for a cup of tea this afternoon, and I had a chat with him."
And the parent said to me, "We just relaxed at that point [00:14:00] because we knew that God was somehow with her. Even though we couldn't protect her, He was there to protect her." And that was quite a, a sobering moment for me
Corporal Neil: And you mentioned that the RAF and possibly the, the wider services are looking at ways that we can have, non-faith chaplains, padres.
I'm not quite sure what terminology we're going to land on with that. Is that an acknowledgement that perhaps the chaplaincy service and the religious element of that doesn't quite cater for everybody in the RAF?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: No, I think it's almost the opposite. I think the Human Rights Act raised religion as a protected characteristic, and by bringing in people from different faiths and non-faiths, it allows those people to actually be more authentically who they are.
And when I was at Royal Air Force Halton we saw this dramatic [00:15:00] uptick in the number of people attending worship on a Sunday morning at St George's Church. When I arrived, there might be 10 or 12 older people attending the service. When I left, there were 50 or 60, most of whom were young, male and female aviators who just were looking for meaning and purpose in life.
And I think there's something called the quiet revival going on, where many young people feel somewhat disillusioned with the materialism of the late 20th century and feel somehow they've been betrayed by the hope that was set before their parents and their grandparents, and they're looking for something above and beyond that.
And it's not necessarily a very well-defined sense of faith or spirituality, but it's a seeking and a searching for something beyond where they are that somehow validates their existence, their identity of who they are.
Corporal Neil: I saw statistics published in Ukraine from 2014 onwards which seems to suggest that, when conflict arises or the world just becomes more uncertain religious adherence seems to grow.
Is that something you've experienced at the minute because the world is increasingly uncertain?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think certainly that uncertainty makes you ask questions. It shatters the predictability of life, and we're certainly seeing that at the moment. We don't quite know what the threats are or where the threats are coming from, and that makes it very hard for us to prepare ourselves.
And that's where a sense of authentic identity of who we are, the values we hold, becomes increasingly important.
Corporal Neil: So if a recruit gets slightly further on in their RAF journey, they'll eventually arrive at a station for their first posting. So some, some stations have rather large chaplaincy teams, and it gives people the [00:17:00] opportunity to form a bond with a particular padre that th- whose help they might have relied on.
Y- you've mentioned walking beside people. And sometimes that can involve ironing out problems that people might be facing in their day-to-day work or their personal life. And these are problems that are almost unique to service. They get thrown up by the nature of service. There was a padre at Lossiemouth who will remain nameless for the purposes of the podcast he's also a very humble man told me that his uniform almost felt like a, a costume.
It was his permission to play in this space. But it wasn't necessarily who he was. Who he was a, a man of the cloth. He saw the RAF as doing good, and he also wanted to do good, and he did good by aligning those two things. In the years you've been in service, has it felt like a calling?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Absolutely. Another occasion I remember was when there was an aircraft crash in the early 2000s where a large number of people were- died in that, that air crash. And I was flown to the location where the aircraft had taken off from, and you can imagine people being quite distressed that they'd waved goodbye to people that morning, and they didn't return.
And I was there for a good few days, and I remember 2:00 in the morning after a day or two, I had a knock on the door of my accommodation, and a young lad who was probably early 20s said, "Padre, can we j- just have a chat?" I said, "Of course we can have a chat. Let's go to the mess." We made some tea and toast, and we chatted.
And he said to me Did I do something to the aircraft that made it crash? Did I not do something to the aircraft that made it crash? And something in me felt that if I wasn't there, who would there be for him to raise that question with? And that piece of scripture, they were like sheep without a [00:19:00] shepherd, my role was to somehow be a bit of a shepherd, a bit of a, a caregiver to those people who were frightened, who were scared, who didn't understand quite what was going on.
And I think that's something I'm very moved by the privilege and the opportunity to be invited literally with a knock on the door into the innermost parts of another person's life and existence, and to hear their soul speak is a profound privilege for a, a chaplain.
Corporal Neil: And is that the difference you think you've been able to make by being in uniform, or would it have been the same if you'd stayed in a parish in Wales?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think by being in uniform, by doing the same training, by living by the same privations on deployment, by sharing the same risks, we identify in a way that it's really hard to do in a parish setting, [00:20:00] where we're always very much primarily looking after people who do come to church, and in the RAF, you are just released to look after all the souls that are within your parish.
And whether it's being chairman of rugby at RAF Marham or saddle club at RAF Wittering, you can get involved in a whole range of activities that bring you close to other people
Corporal Neil: And what have you been-- sorry. And what have been the highlights of your three decades in service?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I would say probably Royal Air Force Halton. I went there slightly kicking and screaming, saying I don't want to go there. But I ended up-
Corporal Neil: Same ...
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I ended up doing six years, I think, at RAF Halton, and in that time we had nearly ten thousand recruits going through.
And I had my five commandments that I used to suggest to the [00:21:00] recruits to get through training, which was turn up on time, wear the right clothes, do what you're told, be part of the team, most importantly, be kind. And I think by teaching in the classroom, going for a run in Wendover Woods, going down to Bramley Training Area on Exercise Blue Warrior, handing out some Haribo, seeing them come to church, seeing them grow was just a wonderful experience.
And I used to say to them on day zero zero when they arrived with their ironing boards and their high vis belts, I would say that the only thing that stands between you and being a warrant officer or a wing commander in twenty years' time is yourself. You are given an opportunity to grow, to be transformed through the experience that you're going through.
And I think the Royal Air Force gives young people an amazing opportunity to develop who they are, their skills, their talents, their character, their personality, if they choose to grasp all those opportunities
Corporal Neil: Any low points?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Any low points? Staff work. Working at Air Command, I think that must be the lowest point of my career.
I just, I'm a, I'm an operator, I'm a deliverer. I like being out there, meeting the people, pressing the flesh, engaging human to human. Staff work is not my forte.
Corporal Neil: So if you had to give ad-advice to the new recruits wondering who the guy with the Haribo is, then it's absolutely know yourself, be at one with yourself, and avoid staff work.
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think so. Some people are called to staff work, and I'm eternally grateful. We have two deputy chaplains-in-chief who are group captains, relative group captains, and I had lunch with them a while ago, and I said to them both personally, I said, "I really am very grateful that you're doing the jobs that you're doing because it means I don't have to." And they didn't particularly like that.
Corporal Neil: So the staff work behind you [00:23:00] your career has now taken you to St Clement Danes where we are sitting right now. I expect that many of our serving listeners will be familiar with the church but how would you describe it for the uninitiated?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I would say it is primarily the family church of the Royal Air Force.
We have, only last week we had the baptism of a child of a dental officer whose marriage I conducted fifteen, sixteen months ago. Later this month we have a memorial service to the wife of an air chief marshal who was commander in the first Gulf War. Last Saturday we had a very humbling service where we remembered all those people who have died in the last twelve months while serving in the Royal Air Force, hosting their families [00:24:00] and holding them in our thoughts and our prayers and trying to support them. In so many ways, we are the family church of the Royal Air Force.
Corporal Neil: It certainly feels like a unique role in RAF chaplaincy. I imagine it throws up some slightly different challenges. We're sat in a building designed by Sir Christopher Wren. The church has a history going back 1,000 years, albeit not the same building.
The architectural issues must throw up some challenges. How are you overcoming those?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: It's a beautiful building, and it's a reflection of the Royal Air Force. It is a historical building, and there are some structural issues. Those structural issues are being addressed. But being a heritage building, they're not things that you can address really quickly.
We're lucky, I think, that we have the resources to do that, and hopefully in a [00:25:00] year or two's time all will be uncovered, the scaffolding will be down, and it will look just like it always looked like, but it will be safer and stronger, and it would endure a long way into the future.
Corporal Neil: You hold the books of remembrance for RAF personnel who died during the Second World War.
I see them down there in the church. You were kind enough to show me around this morning Does that weigh heavy on your mind, having such a responsibility for holding these documents?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: I think it's wonderful and unique, and I think it's something that I think the Army and the Navy don't have. We hold the names of all those people who have passed away while serving in the Royal Air Force for any reason whatsoever.
Not necessarily in operations, but for any reason whatsoever. And every Sunday in our intercessions, [00:26:00] we pray for this central church of the Royal Air Force and the names that are held sacred in this place. And I'd like to think it's a comfort to the families and the friends of those who have passed away, some young, some are older, that actually they're not forgotten. The pages are turned, the names are remembered, no one is forgotten.
Corporal Neil: The church also marks the contribution of our allies to our war effort. We had some Dutch people in this morning. I've also seen a Polish memorial within the church. There's a bond of kinship with the United States Air Force that's reflected around the church as well.
Can you talk to a little bit about that?
Padre Ashley Mitchell: Yeah. Although it's the central church of the Royal Air Force, many other air forces served within it during World War II, the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the Royal Belgium, the Poles, as you've mentioned. But the US Army Air Force in World War II had a very significant role in Western Europe.
It had [00:27:00] different approaches to bombing campaigns and flew from many airfields across England and the United Kingdom. And in total, they lost, I think it was 16,000 personnel in that campaign. So as well as holding the Royal Air Force Books Memorial, we also hold the Book of Memorial for the US Army Air Force from World War II, which contains 16,000 names.
So again, that page is turned regularly, and I think as part of that legacy and that contribution and that appreciation, very kindly, in the 1950s, the families and friends of the United States Air Force donated the organ that we have here. It's a beautiful organ, a very high-quality organ. It's adorned with eagles to represent the United States of America.
And we're very proud and privileged to have that connection. And it really matters to me because so many of the theaters of operations that I've served in Afghanistan in the Middle East, in Iraq, [00:28:00] and other parts of Arabia, and also serving at Ramstein and SHAPE in Belgium, where I've served, I've worked very closely with Americans and shared in their ministry.
And literally only yesterday, I had an email from a US colleague who was just retiring reaching out to say, "Can I get in touch with you?" And he emailed info@stclemendanes to say, "Oh, can I get in touch with Padre Ashley?" And it's great to reconnect with him. So the bonds of connection are so close and it's a great privilege to have that, to hold, to be the custodian of their Book of Remembrance from World War II as well as those from the Royal Air Force.
Corporal Neil: And Padre you also have a range of opportunities for serving personnel to get involved with.
Padre Ashley Mitchell: If you are out there on stations and you've never been there to St Clement Danes do get in touch, info@stclemendanes, and come on a forced development visit. It'd be a great joy to show you around. We form part of the Battle of Britain Walk [00:29:00] that takes us from here along the embankment down to Westminster Abbey, and it's a great trip to come on if you're part of a station and a forced development opportunity arises.
Corporal Victoria Andrews: I'm Victoria Andrews with Reheat for Inside Air. The RAF has launched No. 3 Space Effects Squadron, its first dedicated unit focused on disrupting, degrading, and denying enemy activity that threatens British interests in space. Alongside its sister units, No. 1 Space Operations Squadron and No. 2 Space [00:30:00] Warning Squadron, the RAF can now not only monitor and warn of threats in space, but also take action against them.
The new squadron will protect the critical satellites that guide British ships, connect mobile phones, and provide early warning of missile attacks, strengthening the UK's ability to gain and maintain freedom of operation in space. The Royal Air Force has also launched Exercise Cobra Warrior 26-2, the largest test of the UK's homeland defense, where RAF and NATO forces are being put through demanding training designed to rehearse joint war fighting capability and provide a credible deterrent to adversaries.
The exercise brings together aircraft, personnel, and command and control specialists from the UK, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United States. Together, they're training to demonstrate the rapid integration, resilience, and combat effectiveness needed to deter threats, defend the homeland, and, if required, fight as part of a NATO force.
Air Force Typhoon, F-35 Lightning, P-8 Poseidon, and Air Mobility Force aircraft are operating alongside German, Italian, and American aircraft and personnel throughout the exercise. And finally, a Royal Air Force officer has made history by becoming the first RAF servicewoman to successfully complete the All Arms Pre-Para Selection course, commonly known as P Company.
Flight Lieutenant Alice, an RAF parachuting officer currently serving with 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team
Headquarters, completed the demanding course in August, earning the coveted Maroon Beret awarded to those who successfully pass the selection process.
That's Reheat on Inside Air.
Corporal Neil: Thanks, Vic. And now it's time to find out who's under the hat this time with Ben.
AS1 Ben Russell: I'm AS1 Ben Russell, and this is Under the Hat, where we get to know an aviator in less than a minute. Name you're known by.
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett.
AS1 Ben Russell: What's your profession?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: Cyberspace profession based at RAF Leeming.
AS1 Ben Russell: What's the best thing about your job?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: The people we work with. Technicians are unbelievable, as are the senior NCOs. Officers, not so much sometimes. But yeah, the people always.
AS1 Ben Russell: Hardest part of your job?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: I think it's probably the same answer. Making decisions that affect people is always a challenge. Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. I'd say yeah, that's definitely the most difficult part.
AS1 Ben Russell: Best location you've served?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: Ooh, best location. Greenland was an interesting one. Anything in North America, I've always really enjoyed working with the Canadians and the Americans. I'd like to see more. Yeah, don't know where. I'll go wherever.
AS1 Ben Russell: What bit of luxury kit do you never deploy without?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: Oh, it's gotta be noise-canceling headphones, I think.
AS1 Ben Russell: And what's your proudest moment in the RAF?
Flight Lieutenant Elliot Hoggett: I don't really know. Maybe that means I need to try harder. I would say probably proudest moment is graduating Cranwell. That always sticks out in my mind. But yeah, more to come hopefully.
AS1 Ben Russell: And that's all for this episode of Inside Air. Please give us a review, subscribe via your favorite podcast app, and then join us again soon.
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Narrator: of the Royal Air Force, its people, technology, and operations. If you're serving in the RAF and have a story for us, please speak to your unit media and communications officer. Inside Air is written and produced for the Royal Air Force by RAF Media Reserves.
