In his introduction, Wing Commander Kidd had talked about change being the one constant that the Squadron had experienced throughout its history. Well that was not strictly true: the other constant that had leapt out at him whenever he had turned the pages of the squadron history, and in fact ever since he had arrived back at RAF Valley in January 2015, was the esprit de corps and the calibre of the people that had served on Naval Eight / 208 Squadron throughout its history - from the volunteer pilots under Bromet’s command right through to the serving members of 208(R) Squadron at the Centenary. The significant turnout at the Celebrations was testament to that. As everyone was aware, the numberplate, the task and the aircraft would be nothing without the people.
Wing Commander Kidd reiterated his absolute privilege to
have worked with some of the finest support staff, engineers, pilots and instructors over the course of his time in command. These people consistently delivered an incredible output, completely disproportionate to the assets and resources available to them and constantly put the task and the service ahead of themselves and their families.
In the previous year alone, they had organized and delivered 3 squadron detachments, 2 Overseas Training Flights, operated from France, Denmark, Scotland, Belgium, Poland and Switzerland, trained 5 new QFIs, graduated 13 pilots to Frontline OCUs (some of whom had graduated earlier in the day), trained 6 international student pilots and graduated a total of 12 refresher pilots to 100 Squadron, 736 Naval Air Squadron and the Red Arrows. They had organized and participated in several Force Development and Adventurous Training events, in particular, sailing in the Solent, skiing as part of the Eagle Scheme, and a week-long cycle relay around Northern France to visit the WW1 airfields where the Squadron had grown up. The Squadron had also won the CO’s Cup! At the same time, the Squadron had flown over 2500 hours with a mere 10 aircraft, 2 of which were resplendent in Centenary markings. All of this had been achieved by a team of 7 Ops and Admin staff, 78, (reducing to 39) engineers and 14 QFIs. To say that’s impressive was, in Wing Commander Kidd’s opinion, a huge understatement. Command had been hard work, but it had been his absolute pleasure to work with everyone and he expressed his sincere thanks to everyone for all of their efforts. More importantly, he also thanked all of the families for their support to the Squadron. It was as true as it had ever been that everyone serving on, working for, and supporting the Squadron had made it the great Squadron that it was.
Of course, none of this had been possible without the support of the Station and its Industry partners; predominantly BAE Systems, Babcock, ISS and SERCO. Wing Commander Kidd sincerely thanked the Station Commander, OC Support Wing, OC Operations Wing, and all present
