Spot the difference – 26 years apart.
Fleet Air Arm engineers Harvey Lewis and Sam Skelson recreated a treasured family photograph their fathers appeared in a quarter of a century ago.
The duo were assigned to frigate HMS Iron Duke to maintain the ship’s Wildcat helicopter while the Plymouth-based warship patrolled UK waters.
It was when 24-year-old Harvey from Portsmouth was chatting with his dad Gaz and mentioned the rest of his team – Flight 05 from 815 Naval Air Squadron based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset – that the name Skelson rang a distinct bell.
In 1999, a then Petty Officer Gaz Lewis was serving with one Leading Air Engineering Mechanic Andrew Skelson aboard HMS Exeter, which was deployed to the northern Gulf on Operation Bolton – helping to enforce a no-fly zone over Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Twenty-six years later and Gaz, who went on to transfer to the RAF and earn a commission as an officer, mentioned the photograph taken of the Flight at work – back then it was a Lynx Mk3 helicopter, forerunner of the Wildcat, they looked after.
Whilst Wildcat is considerably more advanced than its predecessor, the routine and practices of a Ship’s Flight have remained relatively unchanged – the helicopter still relies on a dedicated team of air and ground crew to maintain and operate it, assigned to a frigate or destroyer for weeks or months at a time.
Among the duties which have barely changed in three decades, the task of folding and spreading the aircraft’s main rotor blades at sea.
“After talking to my dad about work and the team I have on 05 Flt, he perked up when I mentioned one particular name. He quickly dug through his old photographs and we discovered that he had served with Sam Skelson’s father all those years ago,” said Harvey Lewis, who’s an Air Engineering Technician with four years’ service under his belt.
“It’s incredible to think that both of their sons ended up on a flight together too. It’s also worth noting that I’m wearing my dad’s old flight deck jacket that he wore in the original photograph.”
Harvey’s shipmate Sam is a Leading Air Engineer Technician who’s spent eight years in the Fleet Air Arm and lives in Dorset.
As for their dads, Gaz Lewis has settled on the Isle of Wight while Andrew Skelson, now 62, lives in Leicester.
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