In the Company of Heroes
RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) Reunion RAF Stafford Team
The RAF Mountain Rescue Service (MRS) was set up in 1941 to recover the all important aircrews who were crashing in the mountain of the UK. Inhospitable areas such as Snowdonia and the Peak District all required a Mountain Rescue Team (MRT) to cover those areas. Aircraft could be replaced but the aircrews were far harder to select and train and therefore rescuing them became an all important role.
Wherever there was a risk of RAF Aircrews crashing in remote areas there was a RAF MRT set up. In the 1960s the MRS further branched out into desert rescue too, in full support of RAF Operations in the Middle East. In fact the desert rescue teams visited areas that were only otherwise visited by beduin and the SAS as they conducted their operations across the deserts.
In 1988 our own @Conrad Allen volunteered to join this select bunch, having first been made aware of their existence some 6 years earlier while spending time as an Air Cadet. The selection process was simple: You filled in a form and were then either detached to one of the six RAF MRTs or if you happened to be serving at one of those units that parented an MRT, you went to the Team leader and he explained what would happen. Basically, Conrad had now become a ‘Trialist’, the rather grand and often derogatory term used to refer to those attempting the selection process. For the following 3 weekends he would deploy with the MRT and be put through a series of tests from rock climbing to hill walking. None of which was as straight forward as you would expect. The MRTs were not looking for the fittest or the most capable climbers or runners, they were however, looking for those few who posessed the right qualities, had the right attitude and would fit into this very small band of brothers. Their thoughts being someone with the right qualities, but lacking fitness or skills, can be made fit and can learn those skills. And so the caliber of every RAF MRT member was, and is to this day, extremely high although possibly the biggest bunch of misfits known.
The Kegworth Hotel were the MRT stayed after the M1 aircraft crash in Jan ‘88
Last weekend was the RAF Stafford Team reunion and it was great to be back among this band of brothers reliving the rescues, the crashed aircraft incidents and basically trying to drink each other under the table. I had been on many callouts with these guys, from the harrowing Lockerbie & M1 Kegworth disasters to military aircraft crashes as well as many crag fast climbers, missing walkers and we’ve seen our share of bodies and recovered them. A great reunion and chance to see guys we haven't seen in some cases for over 20 years. Although their bodies were not as able as they had been years ago, not one of them would have thought twice at anytime about putting themselves at risk to save others and so goes the motto of the RAFMRS ‘Whensoever’.