Page 6 - CAMPAIGN Summer 2021

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CAMPAIGN Summer 2021
BNTVA Reunion 2021
9-12th August, Telford Hotel & Golf Resort, Ironbridge.
The BNTVA Reunion was funded by the Veterans’ Foundation, the RAF Benevolent Fund and the Masonic Charitable Foundation.
We met together at the Cold War Hangar, the RAF Museum, Cosford. Wing Commander Tim Mason from RAF Cosford opened the event and met with nuclear test veterans and their families over a buffet lunch.
We were fortunate to hear from Squadron Leader John Robinson AFC (ret.) who heard about the BNTVA through our advertisement written by John Ward (Operation Grapple) in the November 2020 edition of the RBL magazine. John gave a presentation of his time as a Canberra pilot in 76 Squadron at Operations Buffalo and Grapple, and his involvement with Operation Mosaic. He also related a tale of a failed attempt to fit rocket-boosters to a Canberra
to make it fly higher through radioactive fallout! Ian Sanders, Director of Cold War Conversations (www.coldwarconversations.com), talked about the power of the spoken word, the lesser-known participants of the Cold War and the importance in recording their stories. Ian made the most of his time over the next couple of days by interviewing nuclear test veterans for a future Cold War Conversations podcast.
We had wanted to set the scene about the context of the Cold War, the rush of the nuclear tests and the cutting of corners to perform these experiments and gain the hydrogen bomb before the Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty came into force in 1963. To explain this, Dr Christoph Laucht spoke about the events prior to British nuclear testing from 1945-1952, Klaus Fuchs and atomic espionage around the Manhattan Project and Tube Alloys.
A highlight of the Reunion was to see Pete and Jason, who some of you know, from the award-winning Squeaky Pedal, launch the two films they have created so far concerning life on Christmas Island, and the countdown to a nuclear blast. On sharing these films around social media, we have gained a lot of interest from people who are emotionally touched by the experiences described by our nuclear test veterans. Thank you to those who took part. Pete and Jason continued filming at Conference for future films.
Pete Ashcroft, Head of Welfare at the RAF Benevolent Fund opened his talk by saying, “Great to be here today at RAF Cosford Museum – home of the national cold war exhibition and with the Vickers Valiant in the museum. Operation Grapple, Operation Buffalo, the testing at Maralinga, Christmas Island and the moral and ethical questions thrown up are some of the most interesting and important in the history of the Royal Air Force so it’s a pleasure to be here amongst you all today.”