In what was a moving ceremony, the Mayor
went on to say:
“Ever since I became Mayor three years
ago the friendship we have forged with the
station has gone from strength to strength,
and our community continues to benefit from
the help and support from its servicemen and
women.” She addresses the station: “Today
we applaud you and your valuable, sterling
service to the town and sincerely thank you.”
We spoke to RAF BN Station Commander,
Group Captain Simon Edwards to gather his
assessment of this momentous occasion.
“Today has been incredibly important,” he
says. “Carterton is our closest town and friend
so to be given this honour is very exciting.
It’s a day of pride when people that you live
and work alongside cement your relationship
with them.
“The weather was awful but the turnout
today was just superb,” he states. “The C-17
flypast went off superbly and the marching
band was – as always – right on the money.
It’s been wonderful to be part of this.”
Such a parade must take quite some
rehearsing. “The people that you saw
parading today were mainly from 47
Squadron, who recently paraded to celebrate
their centenary,” Simon informs. “Then
there was a lot of wider station personnel,
Reserves, and the Station Warrant Officer has
a team. Getting it all together takes practice,
but at the end of the day parading is a point
of pride for us, we take it very seriously, and
need to get it right.”
And it seems they truly did. Not only that,
as 12pm hit rendering it acceptable to start
drinking pints of an ale brewed by the Siege
specially for the occasion, the sun actually
began to shine.
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