Chapter 3
When we arrived at the main gate, I had to show my station lanyard with my picture on. I was signed in and given another lanyard with ‘visitor’ on it in big red letters. From there, we did the tour. The first stop, after passing a big hotel, was the Exchange.
“This is what they used to call the PX. It’s a place where most shops stock US products, as many of the new accommodation blocks are powered on the US voltage from a central generator and a substation that converts the UK power. There’s clothing from the US, and there’s even a shop that sells UK souvenirs, so the personnel don’t need to go outside the gate to pretend that they’re in England.”
It was a great place to see, and I wondered if I’d ever get the chance to shop here. After that, we went past the library to the Page Community Centre.
“This is basically a roller-skating rink. We do use it for dances. It was in here where I got hurt, walking backwards off a temporary stage. It wasn’t high, but I stupidly put my arm out to break my fall, only breaking my arm and wrist in the process. The base hospitals were full of flu cases at the time, so they sent me down to Colchester to get me out of their hair.”
From there, we passed some housing complexes, the High School and two baseball fields before passing a US Post Office, and an area with normal living in mind. I saw a building that looked like some cars were being worked on, one that was an outdoor recreation shop and a proper hardware store. We turned onto a road that led us back towards the main gate and I looked to the left to see a line of F15 Strike Eagles out on the tarmac.
“That’s one of our current flights. They’re called the ‘Madhatters’ and the planes are F15’s. These are the last of those that we’ll get. They belong to the Four-Ninety-Second. There’s another flight on the other side of the base, which are the Four-Ninety-Fourth.”
“That would be the equivalent of two RAF Squadrons.”
“Right. The whole lot come under the Forty-Eighth Fighter Wing. There’s a lot of building work planned to house another squadron in a couple of years, and I’ve heard that nearly another fifteen hundred personnel will be joining us.”
I grinned.
“Will they be flying F35’s?”
He laughed.
“I cannot confirm or deny that, Carol. I’ve only heard the rumours myself. You seem to be well informed about planes.”
“You have to learn something if you’ve watched ‘Top Gun’ a few times.”
Before leaving Lakenheath, we went to one of the strangest cafes that I’d seen. It was called Shawings, and there was nothing but chicken wings, tacos and fries on offer, along with beer and cider. He suggested that I try the Clint Eastwood Airman special, which was, I must say, very different. It was only one of a couple of dozen flavours that coated ordinary chicken.
While we were sitting there, I asked the questions on my mind.
“So, when someone arrives here on deployment, they live in an enclave which mirrors their stateside life, including the food, the shops, the entertainment and just about everything else. Are the top brass scared that the good old boys may go out and ravage the local ladies?”
“That’s pretty much it. There was an old wartime saying about Americans, that they were overpaid, oversexed, and over here. That has tainted the thinking. Look, on the two bases, we have almost the same population as the local town. A lot of them, including the women, have had basic military training. If they decided to cut loose, there’s not enough police within fifty miles to contain them. I, and the few staff I have, have the job to give them a piece of the UK, in small bites, with shows and events.”
“You haven’t shown me the building that supplies the listener content.”
“No. That’s at Feltwell, with the training school and the satellite monitoring station. There’s no way that you would be allowed in there. There’s no DJ, as such, just a couple of junior officers who take what comes in and sets it up for playing.”
“How many listeners are there?”
“Who knows. There’s over five thousand speakers throughout the two bases, in the accommodation and recreation areas. Is that important?”
“I was wondering if we could supply you with programs. I’ll be on air next week, two hours every afternoon and another two hours in the evening. That includes local news, weather and adverts. If we could feed into your setup, it may provide a touch of the exotic Britain. If there’s complaints, we can just stop. If there aren’t, then we can expand the coverage. Does the piped system have a range of settings that can be chosen?”
“It does. Are you suggesting that we make Zack FM one of the channels?”
“Why not? It may get some of the personnel out and about. When I’ve been here longer, I’ll know more about our content. I’ve only been concentrating on my own shows so far.”
“That may be interesting to propose. The station may have to do a few shows that highlight the local area. You, as a new girl on air, could be sent around the tourist places to talk about them. It may get small groups out to visits. I could organise a coach.”
“How much sway do you have with things like that?”
“Not a lot, really, but my counterpart with the Forty-Eighth is a Colonel, on the brink of being promoted to a one-star General. He has Captains and Majors working for him in these bases, as well as Fairford. They’re the main flying centres. There’s eight or nine other bases where the US have personnel, and he’s in overall charge of their entertainment, and also their morale. A lot have loved ones at home and the deployments are stressful. He has to balance their needs with the needs of the locals around the bases.”
“Are you friendly with the Colonel?”
“So-so. We meet on a regular basis and now speak together on first name basis.”
“You haven’t told me yours, Group Captain Allardyce.”
He grinned and leaned closer, so that the driver, two tables away, couldn’t hear.
“I’m Brendon, and he’s Chuck.”
Then he stood.
“Smithers, warm up the jeep. We’ll be with you shortly.”
The driver nodded and left. I stood as well.
“Thank you for lunch, Brendon. Where to, now?”
“Now, my dear, we have another base for you to look at.”
On the way down to the other base, he told me about the layout.
“Mildenhall is differently set up. It’s mainly heavier aircraft, and the main base for the KC-135 Strato-tankers, the One Hundredth Air Refuelling Wing, known as the ‘Bloody Hundredth’. There’s RC-135 ‘Rivet Joint’ reconnaissance planes. There are a few of the Commando transports as well. They’re variations of the old Hercules. There are parts of the base that even I can’t access. That’s the home of the Three-Fifty-Second spec-ops and their Ospreys.”
I had passed the main entrance on my tour with Christine and Andrew. This time, the driver pulled up at the main entrance. We got out and the process started again. I now had my ID looked at again and issued with another visitor lanyard. The road looped around the end of the runway, and we arrived at the Hardstand Fitness building, passing a number of big planes on individual stands.
Inside, it was like the sports centre in Lakenheath, but set up as a pair of basketball courts and a gym.
“We have done shows in here, but it isn’t used as much as the Page Centre. There’s soccer pitches between here and the fence, as well as a baseball pitch. The West Row gate is not far away, and we’ve brought locals in by coach for some shows, back a few years. It may be something we can promote in future.”
From there, we passed other planes, the maintenance section, and looped around the other end of the long runway. At one point, I glimpsed the Ospreys off to the right and then we were in the main accommodation area, with the playground, US post Office, Exchange, the Commissary grocery store, a dormitory building, laundromat, the Galaxy Club Restaurant, and then the Bob Hope Community Centre.
“We have held dances here. This is where your music would go well. It’s mainly a club where families meet. There’s a Starbucks and a proper dance floor with a stage. I was thinking of getting you in with a DJ setup to do a night of Anything Goes to a live audience.”
“That would be great! I’ve also been working on a show with the Big Band era. I’ll be on air for two, two-hour shows, Monday to Saturday, with Sunday off. I’ve started to think about more different themes, seeing that I’ve got twelve spots a week. Mark, at the station, suggested that I do a call-in chat show.”
“What other types of show would you do?”
“I used to do a classic pop show in Colchester, and what you’ve told me, today, has got me wondering if there’s any chance of getting new, American, discs flown in, so I could do a show of stuff that’s totally new and unreleased here. That could appeal to the younger listeners across the three counties. It would have to be clean, no swearing or sexual inuendo. The local authorities wouldn’t like it.”
“If we’re piping you in the bases, that would be a great show. One that would resonate with the personnel, especially if they get a chance to interact with the DJ in real time. The current shows are all ‘you get what you hear’ without any chance to comment. Three channels are non-stop sports, mainly their football, baseball and basketball.”
From there, we left the base at the nearby gate, which fed us back onto The Street and down to the township. The driver turned into the entrance to Aldrich Place and stopped. Brendon and I got out and we shook hands.
“Look, Carol. This has been a very good day. You’ve given me a few ideas to put to Chuck. We may have to take you the see him, another day, should things get interesting. I’ll be listening out for you on Monday. Best of luck with your first week.”
“Thank you. I start at two. It’s been a very interesting day for me as well. Thank you for the tour and lunch.”
He got back in the jeep and the driver backed out onto the road and they left. I stood for a while and then went to the house. As I closed the front door, Andrews’ voice called me to come into the kitchen. There was a cup of tea waiting as I sat down. The three of them looked at me, intently. I just smiled and took a sip of tea. It was Andrew who broke first.
“So, how did the tour go?”
“It was good, it was interesting, I saw lots of planes from afar, and I had the most interesting lunch. Some sort of chicken wings and fries, with an horrendous coating that’s impossible to describe. It was called a Clint Eastwood.”
“What about getting them to listen to us?”
“That’s more complicated than it first appeared. They have over five thousand speakers on the bases, and they have their own piped radio, with shows brought in directly from the states. We did talk about getting Zack added to the selection as a stand-alone choice, but that has to go upstairs to his counterpart, Chuck, the Colonel in overall charge of US morale in UK bases. I was shown three sites where live and DJ shows have been staged. One was the Page Community Centre in Lakenheath, and there are two in Mildenhall. One is a sports centre, set up as side-by side basketball courts, while the other is the Bob Hope Community Centre, with a proper dance floor and stage. The Group Captain actually suggested that I could do a DJ set there with dance music.”
“That’s a wonderful result for the first contact. Did you find out why their people don’t get out much?”
“The whole set-up is a home away from home. They have everything they need brought in directly from the states. They don’t even have to go out of the base to get things to send back home. There’s a shop in the Exchange that sells British Knick-knacks. The reason for all that is that the top brass are afraid of the fall-out if a load of their charges go on a rampage in the local towns. I think that their security people like it that way, as well. We did talk about them organising a coach trip to tourist places, in conjunction with Zack broadcasting a tourist information show, once we’re getting piped.”
“When you come in on Monday morning, I expect that the boss will want you to tell him about your tour. Nobody has been in touch with us like this, so he’ll need to be able to plan a few things. I’ll see you on Monday evening. Norman will be your producer in the afternoons. There’s the three of you between six and midnight, and it’s automated between midnight and eight.”
He got up and left, with a smile on his face. Maude laughed.
“Now, that made him happy that he brought you here, and you haven’t even started your regular shows yet.”
“I’ve been thinking about those regular shows, Maude. I wonder if I would be allowed to mix them up with other things. Like my own blend of classic rock. I asked if it was possible to get shipments of new release discs from the states, with an idea of doing a show with them. It may resonate with our younger listeners.”
Jaunty had listened to everything, without comment. Then asked the one question that I could answer.
“How are you going to get the station piped? They could pick up the signal, but that’s subject to static or local interference.”
“The easiest would be to put a microwave dish on our transmission tower, aligned with one on one of their antennas. It’s simple to code the output and decode at the other end. The result would be a fraction of a second behind the normal broadcast.”
“You sound like you know about such things.”
“I am a licensed electrician and have been repairing radios and TVs for five years.”
He laughed.
“That’s good, our set’s been playing up.”
I went out to the car and got my toolbox, then spent two hours looking at their TV, getting it to work perfectly. It was an older one and had developed a couple of dry joints. When I told them that, Maude laughed and told me that there were more than one dry joint in the house. We went back to the pizza place, and they paid for my pizza, a fitting end to my first week here.
I was free on Sunday, so drove home for a visit and to report on my first week away from home. My parents were agog with my description of the two air bases and how things had a much deeper thread than I’d first thought. It was a nice day, but I drove back to Mildenhall with the thought that I’d left Colchester behind. I was leading a very new life in a new place.
Monday morning, I was doing research in the music library and looking at the other shows that were being broadcast. It appeared that, unlike the hospital, the station normally broadcasted a wide range of music, with adverts, announcements and weather news for the whole twenty-four hours. That made it easier for me, as I could just follow that format, if I had nothing special. I was bringing more than just a DJ voice to the station.
The boss came in around eleven, and I was in his office, relating my Saturday in detail. At the end, he sat back with a thoughtful look.
“Carol, you’ve done better than I’d hoped. I like the idea of us getting into their piped system as an option. It may be a little while to get some of their ears, but it’s a start in the right direction.”
“I was told that it would take the Colonel to give his blessing. I’ve thought about how we could get a clean signal to them at the least cost. Landline would be expensive, so I wondered if we could organise microwave on our transmitter aligned with one at Feltwell.”
“That could work. Our tower is just a Band 11 Lindblad array on top of the spire at St, Mary’s, not far away. I could ask them if they would allow us to add a microwave dish, as long as it was away from the edge, so out of sight from the ground. It would just need a junction at the tower to feed an encoder in a weatherproof container.”
“I also sounded out the possibility of getting shipments of new material flown in from the states. We could put a show out that nobody else can.”
He looked very hard at me and then laughed.
“Oh, dear. You’ll be the death of me. If we can put out a show like that, with material that nobody else has heard, it will make the industry sit up, as long as it works out. Go and get some lunch, Carol, and I’ll be listening to your show this afternoon. If you can get call-ins like you did with Mark, then it will make me, and the advertisers, happy.”
Christine was about to take her lunch break, so the two of us walked up the road to the Sapphires café, where we sat and both had a vegetarian and pesto toasted sandwich with salad, coffee, and one of their many flavours of brownies for dessert. During our time there, we talked about growing up in one gender, and ending up in another. For her, it had been purely her own choice, and she was sad for me with the medical intervention forcing my own change.
Back in the studio, I got together all the things I needed for the show, sat with Norman while Mark did his thing, and then took his place as his last track was playing. I introduced myself and played the first track or two, then did an ad break, followed by weather and road conditions, and was truly settled in when the first caller came through. There was a code for them. If the light was steady, I was to talk to them off-air, if the light was flashing, Norman would put the caller on-air after I had told the audience that someone wanted to speak. He would quiz them on the content to gauge their reason, as well as their suitability to be understood.
My first on-air caller in my first show wanted to know where I’d been, as he hadn’t heard of me but was so good.
“Thank you for that, Tony. This is my first time on broadcast radio. I’ve spent seven years as a volunteer with Colchester Hospital Radio.”
“You really sound wonderful, Carol, and look good as well. I’m streaming Zack on my computer. Can you give me a wave?”
I waved at the camera and Norman ended the call so I could carry on. That set the tone for the show. I played some tunes, made the announcements, and talked to callers, both on and off-air. At the end of the two hours, I was wrung out as I made way for the next DJ, Anita, who gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek before she settled into the seat, gave the headphones a wipe and got ready for her own show. I walked out, into a hug from Norman.
I went back to the house and had a shower. Then I dressed in more of an evening fashion with proper make-up. Jaunty had told me that there was a café nearby where I could get a good fish and chips, so I ventured along St. Andrews’ Street, finding quite a good range of shops, including a big Sainsburys’ and what looked like an interesting place to get cheap clothes. The chippie was more than that, but the cod, chips, salad and peas was more than I could finish. The other offerings looked good as well.
Back in the studio, I collected up my list and things for the evening show. This was to be a genuine ‘Anything Goes’ and a distinct variation on the usual programming. It had been advertised as my signature show, so the listeners should know what to expect. At eight, I was back on air, following the intro track. I had been doing this show for so long, I could talk about the times when the songs were popular, the shows they came from, and the stars that had been on stage.
About ten past nine, we had a caller from one of the bases, who was very happy to be hearing songs from his parents collection, ‘back home’. At a quarter to ten, there was a caller, called Chuck, who I spoke to off-air.
“Good evening, Chuck. This is Carol.”
“I’ve just called you to congratulate you, young lady. This is a very professional, and well researched show. Brendon had spoken to me about you, and I’ll be talking to my superiors about things that you had discussed. It may take a few weeks, but I’ll let you know when we meet.”
“Thank you, Chuck. I’ll need to ring off now, the track has ten seconds left.”
“Keep up the good work.”
I switched back to Andrew and finished the shift. Anita was ready with her ten to midnight session, dressed to kill. I collected up my things as she gave her intro in a very sultry voice. When I left the studio, Andrew was smiling as he gave me a bit of notepaper.
“I’ve put the recording of Chucks’ call on a USB for the boss to listen to. Just those few seconds have the basis for big things. Have a good night and I’ll see you tomorrow afternoon.”
I put my stuff away and walked home for a good sleep. It had been a big day, a full four hours on air, on my own, and dealing with all the extra things that hadn’t been needed before. By half past ten, I had undressed, cleansed and was in bed, sleeping deeply. My last thoughts was wondering what others thought of my debut day.
I was woken by my mobile chirping. It took a few seconds before I could answer. It was Mum.
“Good morning, daughter. I’m just ringing to tell you that your father has jerry-rigged a wire to the TV aerial, plugged into the radio. We were able to listen to your show last night. Our congratulations.”
“Thanks Mum. I never realised how wearing it was, sitting for two hours. That was my second show of the day. The station was happy that we had a call from someone on one of the bases.”
As she spoke again, my eyes fell on the notepaper that Andrew had given me. I gave a snort.
“What’s that, dear. Did you sneeze?”
“No Mum. I just saw a note that I was given as I left last night. I’d just put it on the bedside drawers without looking at it. I thought that it may be a note to see the boss. Instead, it’s a list of boys names with their telephone numbers. I’m obviously a hit with a few. Look, I’ve got to get ready for today. I’ve got four hours on air to prepare for.”
“OK, love. We’ll be listening. Show tunes again?”
“Not tonight, I’m doing Big Band forties tonight. If I did the same show six nights a week, it would get old very quickly.”
“I’ll look forward to that. Have a good day, love.”
“You too, Mum. Love you.”
Marianne Gregory © 2026