Saturday 26 May 2012

Shetland Times - 19 Aug 1994

In August 1994 the Shetland Times printed a whole page article about RAF Saxa Vord. Confidence was high with the new Domestic site just about complete and the new married quarters at SHE well into the construction phase, A few years later there was more of an air of doom & gloom - but that will be for future sections.
The whole article is produced at the beginning followed by individual sections of the page. I have had to reproduce it from a photocopy of a newsprint page so what follows is not exactly perfect! (Left click on pictures to enlarge).

Wednesday 16 May 2012

Arctic Circular - Midsummer 1977

I an grateful to Pete Brindley who sent me his copy of tyhe Arctic Cicular for Midsummer 1977 - it has been reproduced below:

Friday 4 May 2012

Charity Events Part 4

For some reason personnel and their families at Saxa Vord became more heavily involved in raising money for charity than those on any other station I’ve been to. I could guess at the reasons for this, small station – well integrated with the local community etc – but at the end of the day it would be just a guess.

I have arranged the following press clippings and photos in chronological sequence. Some of the copies of clippings are very poor quality (photos of low resolution microfiche taken in poor light conditions). At first I thought I would exclude the worst but then decided that those involved in the events may well be interested in seeing them.
1965


1970

1971
1972


1974
The first 2 items for 1974 concern a sponsored marathon to support the Trawler “Gaul” Fund. For those not familiar with the story of the Gaul – In Feb 74 this Hull trawler was lost in storm conditions in the area of the Barents Sea. All 36 crew were lost and the incident has been surrounded in controversy ever since. To this day many are unconvinced by the official “design” fault explanation and theories of Soviet involvement have not been uncommon. In any event, it was the worst disaster to have happened to the British Fishing Fleet and was in the headlines for a long time. There are plenty of articles on the internet for those who would like to pursue the subject.

1979


1980
The 3 pictures below concern the Round Unst Trek of 1979, the third one is of the “Star” of the event.
1983

1985

The next 3 articles all concern a sponsored event which raised over £3,000 for Leukaemia Research.
1986


1987
1988


1993/4
The 2 clippings below are about the RAF Saxa Vord contribution to the 1993 BBC Children In Need Appeal. The second article was from a 1994 publication of the RAF News – which tended to need much longer lead times for stories.


CONTENTS LIST