The Royal Navy Wasp: An Operational & Retirement History

About Jeram-Croft LarryLarry Jeram-CroftMartin TerryTerry Martin

**Larry Jeram-Croft** spent thirty years in the Royal Navy. He trained as an Aircraft Engineer and then as a helicopter pilot. He was awarded a Queens Commendation for Search and Rescue duties and flew the Lynx of HMS Andromeda during the Falklands War. Retiring from the RN in 2000 as a Commander he worked in industry before retiring for a second time. He then bought a yacht and lived in the Caribbean with his wife Fiona before returning to the UK to write. He now lives in Somerset where apart from writing he continues to fail to hit a golf ball with any skill whatsoever. **T****erry Martin** despite growing up in Portsmouth and in a navy family learned to fly with the University Air Squadron at RAF Abingdon whilst at Medical school in London. His original ambition of being a Medical Officer Pilot in the RAF would make it possible to fly and be a doctor at the same time and he qualified as a pilot and in medicine within two months of each other in 1981. Terry spent the next ten years on active RAF duty followed by a further 17 years as a reservist in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force seeing action in both Gulf wars. Terry became a Flight Medical Officer and received training in the De Havilland Chipmunk Scottish Aviation Bulldog and the British Aircraft Corporation Jet Provost. After later dalliances with the British Aersopace Hawk and then an eye-opening flight at the controls of a two seater Harrier T4A it was the latter that convinced Terry that VSTOL and hovering were much more fun than flying fast! Realising that he was past his sell-by date for Harrier training he learned to fly the Westland Aerospatiale Gazelle at RAF Shawbury followed by later experience on the Westland Aerospatiale Puma with 230 Squadron at RAF Gutersloh in Germany and 1563 Flight (33 Squadron) in Belize. During his twenty nine years in the Royal Air Force Terry reached the rank of Wing Commander and in addition to aerospace medicine he specialised in emergency medicine intensive care medicine and aeromedical evacuation. He now works as a consultant in anaesthesia and critical care as well as being the Medical Director of an international air ambulance company based in the heart of 'Wasp country' the southwest of England. Terry has privately owned and flown several Wasps since 2000 and still flies as a display pilot in the UK.