Lyneham say farewell to 'Crooksie'
Royal Air Force Lyneham
www.raf.mod.uk/raflyneham
1st December 2006
In September 2004, Flight Lieutenant Michael ‘Crooksie’ Crooks and his wife Sonia joined 24 Squadron on an exchange tour from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Based at RAF Lyneham, 24 Squadron is one of the four busy Hercules air transport units, heavily tasked with many world-wide conflicts. It soon became apparent that ‘Crooksie’, as a RAAF Tactial Air Transport (Tac AT) instructor would have a lot to offer the Lyneham based C130J fleet, especially as the Wiltshire airbase was in a transistion period exploring the Tac AT environment, something which is typical within the tasking of the ageing C130K Hercules fleet. Within 6 weeks of learning to speak the Queens English (formerly known as the Exchange officers conversion course) he was thrown in the deep end and was put on the Tac AT course.

He took to our Tac AT environment like an Australian Olympic swimmer takes to the podium and was soon passing on words of wisdom to 30 Squadron, the other C130J unit, Tac instructors.

He quickly put his new qualification into action and was in Afghanistan within 5 weeks as the captain of our Tac crew. However, being a typical Aussie, he decided to take all of a weeks’ paternity leave during this time to be with Sonia during the birth of their daughter Emily. ‘Crooksie’, during his short time with us has proven to be a well liked, hard working individual, who in addition to spending 2 months in Iraq and 2 ½ months in Afghanistan has taken part on various exercises with the French Air Force.

One of his biggest contributions to the C130J Wg are the Tac simulator trips that he has introduced, providing many realistic operational type missions to train and test our crews.

Both Michael and Sonia took advantage of their time at Lyneham, increasing their family with the births of Emily and most recently Haden. They also managed to travel to most of Europe in addition to setting up a base camp in their home for other family members to come home and find some culture, but also travelling to most of Europe.

Having been somewhat of a British talisman since his arrival (the Australians lost the Ashes, majority of their rugby games), he’s taken quite a bit of stick. We’re just sorry that he’ll be back home by the time this Ash’s test will have finished!

Flight Lieutenant Crooks has said reflecting on his stay at Lyneham, “Having spoken with my predecessor (Flight Lieutenant Rex Krausse), both Sonia and I were looking forward to starting the tour on 24 Squadron towards the end of 2004. Any trepidation we may have had with respect to being the only Australian exchange aircrew on the camp were soon dispelled as we were made to feel extremely welcome from the outset."

He continues "Once we were settled in the Officers Married Quarter and on completion of the exchange pilot’s conversion course, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity of a low level course. This has given me plenty of time to get used to your quaint weather around the UK low flying system.

From a personnel perspective, I have thoroughly enjoyed flying with the RAF, both operationally and ‘down route’. It has been a busy period over the last 2 ½ years and I am both glad and proud to have been part of a strong unit throughout this period. We have made the most of this fantastic opportunity given to us and whilst we have thoroughly enjoyed travelling all over Britain during the last 2½ years we have also managed to explore many of the other European cultures during this time.

The birth of both of my children, Emily and Hayden, amalgamated with the wonderful experiences gained from serving with the RAF, in particular 24 Squadron, have given both Sonia and I many wonderful memories to take back to Australia.

We would like to express our gratitude to 24 Squadron for all their help over the last 2 ½ years and they’ll always be a welcome for any of them to come and watch the rest of the Ash’s at my place!!”

Flight Lieutenant Crooks was presented with his Iraq and Afghanistan General Service Medal in the Officers’ Mess on Friday 24 November 2006. Both of these were earned whilst serving with the RAF on 24 Squadron.

All on 24 Squadron would like to pass on our sincere thanks and gratitude to both Michael and Sonia for all their help during their time here and would like to emphasise that there’ll always be a welcome for them on 24 Squadron.