RAF flight sergeant visits 67th SOS, discusses heritage

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Marelise Wood
  • 352nd Special Operations Group Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  In late 1980, 13-year-old Mark Service saw something that stuck with him for the rest of his life.

On a mountainside in Scotland that claimed 25 lives in eight separate aircraft crashes, he saw an HH-53C helicopter from the 67th Aerospace Rescue Recovery Squadron (ARRS), RAF Woodbridge, England, recover and airlift the wreckage from two of the tragic crashes.

At the drop zone, Mark was given a tour of the aircraft by its pilot, Capt. Frank Gray, along with the squadron's "Jolly Green" patch, and thus began a lifelong fascination with the 67th.

Today, the 67th ARRS is known as the 67th Special Operations Squadron, and Mark Service is a Flight Sergeant in the Royal Air Force. As the son of a founding member of the largest independent aviation museum in Scotland, he is something of a history buff, especially when it comes to the 67th.

He recently was invited to the 67th SOS by the commander, Lt. Col. Kelly Passmore, to give a heritage brief during the squadron's First Friday event in May.

"Today I talked about the museum [Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum] and the history of the 67th, back to 1952 when the unit was first established," said Sgt. Service.

He also brought 67th memorabilia items one can normally see on display at the museum. Before 2007, the museum had always maintained a small 67th display, but Sgt Service wanted to change that, and when researching the squadron, he discovered that it had ties to Scotland.

Not long after the squadron stood up, it moved to Prestwick, Scotland, until early 1960.

"Prestwick is about 70 miles from Dumfries," he said, "but it's certainly very close to the aviation museum. My plan was to extend the display to feature artifacts going back to the 1950s right to the very beginning of the 67th when it was the 67th Air Rescue Squadron. "

The museum now houses a large display dedicated to the 67th.

Capt. Joshua Jackson, who attended the brief, had nothing but positive remarks.

"It was an excellent history lesson," said the captain. "It's good for us because every month we have meetings where we do a history lesson and learn about our heritage ...so this teaches us a lot, lets us know where we came from."