A guest blog by our very own Jo Armstrong.
My granddad was a hero.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) following World War II for using his navigation and flying skills to get a flak-damaged aircraft home when sadly, key crew members hadn’t made it. A feat made more remarkable because he was a bomb aimer, not a pilot.
But that wasn’t why he was a hero to me.
Some thought he was maverick, maybe even a little bit bonkers. In his early RAF days he was Court Marshalled, stripped of his wings and demoted for “making work fun”. The official reason was for “endangering life”. He became bored flying over the featureless Canadian prairies and flew a plane so close to a vehicle driven by a senior member of the air force that it was run off the road!
He was keen for me to choose my own way in life and not have to conform to female stereotypes. So I skipped off to primary school armed with skills that Bear Grylls would be proud of. Before the age of five I could:
- build a survival shelter
- navigate – using a map or the stars
- catch and butcher a wild rabbit (health and safety meant I wasn’t allowed to cook it though!)
- hit the bulls eye on a dartboard from 12 feet away… with a selection of knives
- bring a man down with a well-aimed kick or punch
- explain how a combustion engine worked (OK, not strictly ‘survival’).
Although clearly trained for the SAS I didn’t follow that career path, but nevertheless some of these skills came in handy. Mainly for science lessons, and to deter a potential attacker who took a direct hit from an accurately thrown stiletto. That incident still upsets me to be honest… I loved those shoes!
But back to my granddad. What made him my hero was his individuality, his generous sharing of knowledge and time, his willingness to help, his positive outlook, the sense of fun in whatever we did together and the glint of mischief in his eyes.
If you need a help to be a hero, or know someone who does, book a place on our Midlands, London and Bristol programmes. Or be a hero and help spread the word about our events. We’ve kept costs as low as possible to make them accessible to all.
Cheers