An early breakfast this morning and then Claire called over to escort us to RAF Marham.

We were welcomed by Sqn Ldr ‘Rem’ Merrick the CRO at RAF Marham who after coffee introduced us to his assistant Denise and then gave as an audio visual presentation on the history and current role and structure of RAF Marham, together with the background to the station crest.

We were then very privileged to be allowed to visit the section within the Tornado Components Squadron where James worked and gain a fascinating insight into his role and meet with and chat to a number of his colleagues.

It was then off to the Officers Mess for lunch and here’s a photograph of us chilling out in the mess after lunch.

It was then off to IX Squadron for an up close look at the Tornado GR4. I spent rather a lot of time sitting in the cockpit, well I haven’t flown for a while and never anything quite as high tech as a Tornado. 🙂 The RAF photographer took lots of photographs of our visit – unfortunately I couldn’t persuade him to swap his D2X for my Fuji F11 point and shoot. 🙁

Then to the basketball final which coincidentally was between two teams “The ECM Jammers” and “Jonesy’s Boys” made up of players from the two shifts from James’ section. It was a very close and fiercely fought game with Jonesy’s Boys winning by one point, final score being 27-28.

We then returned to the hotel to change into something more casual for the evening at the music club at RAF Marham.

The basketball competition and music club plan to donate the proceeds to James’ favourite charity The Kidney Wales Foundation.

We had a most enjoyable and interesting day and extend our very grateful thanks to RAF Marham and Jame’s colleagues for their kind invitation and welcome.