February 2000
1. Doug Deas showed me round the buildings he
had leased for his company,
the former Headquarters of the 81st tactical Fighter Wing at RAF Bentwaters.
2. USAFE badge on a safe door.
3. Etched glass doors to the boss's inner sanctum
4. Briefing Room in the 81st TFW Headquarters building, RAF Bentwaters.
5. Sign inside a kitchen cupboard, showing coffee and coke preferences for Maj. Gen. Anderson.
6. Mural of radar screen which is about 6' square, in the training room.
7. The artist, Mike Tomczyk (TJ) who painted the radar screen mural.
My name is Jay Garver, and I was stationed at Bentwaters from 85 to 88 as an Air Traffic Controller. Just to let you know, the radar scope in the first set of pictures was indeed a portion of our old training room. I spent many, many long hours in there and other parts of the building going through my upgrade training. The guy that did most of the work on the scope was Mike Tomczyk, TJ as he was known to us.
The scope is an accurate depiction of Bentwaters airspace, such as it was in England. Bentwaters, of course, is in the middle., Woodbridge to the south. RAF Wattisham is to the Northwest by about 15 miles, along with the Mendlesham TV mast. Sizewell nuclear plant was to the northeast at 10 miles. It seems another bird sanctuary was to the SE of the field, but I can't remember it's name. Amazingly enough, after 17 years, I still remember the names of most of the fixes (which are the crosses to the Northeast) into the base. Also, RAF Honington, Mildenhall and Lakenheath can be seen about 30 to the Northwest. I was hoping to be able to zoom on the image to see if the Playboy bunny that we hid on the picture could be seen. No luck there. Maybe now that the secret is out, it'll bring some amusement to future visitors.
See the Playboy Bunny on Jay's MEMORIES contribution