Wednesday 31 March 1999

Linn Barringer met Glenn Martin at London Airport, Gatwick and took him to Jumbo's house at Benhall.  They then took the road "to work" that Glenn took for four years while stationed at Bentwaters in the late 1980s.  After visiting building 591 and touring the technical site, they went over to the fenced-off Domestic Site and obtained permission to nose around, from the very helpful Vernon Drane of Anglia International Airpark, the prospective developers of Bentwaters.

PART ONE - THE ARRIVAL

1. Glenn arriving at Gatwick on flight AA50 from Dallas Forth Worth, around 10:00 BST.   The Boeing 777 on which he was a passenger was just one week old. What Glenn really needed was a Brit he'd never met, asking him to pose for a picture within five seconds of entering the arrivals hall!

2. Glenn meets up with Jumbo (Steve Felton) again, at Jumbo's house deep in the Suffolk countryside, at Benhall.

3. At last, Glenn gets the chance to relax, after the 9.5 hour flight,
followed by about 3 hours in a car, up the M23, round the M25, up the A12.

4. Glenn visits 29 Benhall Green, where he lived for most of his tour of duty at Bentwaters.

PART TWO - THE Technical Site, BENTWATERS

11. Generators in the building joined to the north side of the EMS building.

12. 92 TFS building in the pine forest and gorse bushes on the
southeast corner of RAF Bentwaters air base. In this area, there
are the many dispersal points (hard standings).

13. Glenn, by the Share a Ride sign on the public road between the Domestic and Technical sites.   We've selected RAF Woodbridge, Woodbridge Town, Ipswich and Felixstowe on the rotating sign.
[Sorry the picture is so bad you can't see all of that - Linn Barringer]

14. Cinema, later The Angel Theatre, now demolished.

15. The BX, RAF Bentwaters domestic side, now demolished.

16. Filling Station / Gas Station.
Gary Keefer adds...  the white building to the left that is under the station awning was the Army Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) car dealer, where you could order US manufactured vehicles. The brown/red building to the left of the car dealer was the AAFES Administration offices.

17. The Bank

18 & 19. Housing.  Gary Keefer adds "Billeting office's Temporary Lodging Family (TLF). It was used by newly arriving families for up to 30 days or departing families for up to 10 days I believe. These buildings are now private housing.

20. Officers Open Mess

21. Open Mess - remember Little Las Vegas?

22. Right, the Quonset Hut used by taxis (Brits would call that a Nissen Hut), water towers in the background, and left, the donut shop. All now demolished for private housing development.

Ron Burrell adds: "That hut was once part of the Bentwaters Recreation center. The end of building pictured was once the American Express Travel Agency in 1983. The taxi place was just around the end and to the right of hut in photo.

Steve Krulin: The photo next to it (Quonset hut) looks like the side of the Rec center circa 1964 it had a large modern building with theater hall (not cinema) built onto it. However that's not possible as those building were completely replaced by "new" BX and was it a McDonalds(?) across from "old" filling station when I visited in 1986. I vividly remember the disappointment I felt when the "old" BX and snackbar was gone - I had thought of one of those extra greasy hamburgers all the way out on the drive from Ipswich centre. Not to mention nearly killing myself (and others) at each roundabout. Repeating the experience after returning to home by leaving the airport parking lot on the left side of the road. A car dealer's building? They used to line up those 390hp Fords and Mustangs outside the Rec Center - never could get them to let me take one for a "test run". On second thought -  unless it's a picture of a site 7 hut - they all look the same from here. <grin>

22a.Is this the same building as the one above?
This picture was sent to  Ron Burrell by Al Berning. Thought to be in the sixties.

Steve Krulin says: "The IS Laundry I remember sure looked like building on the right. In the early/mid sixties it was at the top of the road leading to site 7. The building on the left on your web site is much to big to be the one as described above - no "laundry work" was actually done on premises but was vaned off-base to Ispwich (I guess). Anyway that's how I remember it.

22b. March 2001, Ron Burrell found another picture of the laundry,
with his (now) wife, Pam, standing outside her workplace.

23. Dormitories, later bldg 760.

24. More of the same dormitories, later building 760