It's not often that I am almost the youngest member of a group. In recent years, I have had that pleasure once a year, and so it has been this year. Earlier in the week, I attended what will be the last of the formal (top table, distinguished guest) Grapple re-unions.
Grapple? The name given to the testing of thermo-nuclear weapons at Christmas Island, an island in the Pacific south of Hawaii.. ( Yes, I know: you found Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean but not in the Pacific. No, the island hasn't moved. The name has been changed to Kiribati.)
The first successful test took place on 15 May 1957, 50 years ago. We - the Grapplers - marked the occasion by our re-union in the Royal Air Force Club, by a 'bombe' for dessert, and by a rich cake on which was drawn an outline of the Island.
We talked about the Island. We looked at a display. We watched a film (and put our names down for the CD). We listened to our master telling us what a good job we had done, what an extraordinarily good time we had done. And we accepted the compliments of our guest, Lord Carrington.
Just a good, companionable time.
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