Express & Star

RAF real stories shared at museum

The unique stories of people who served in the Royal Air Force will form the highlight of a project.

Published
Caroline Paige will talk about the life change she made while in service

“Life Stories: the RAF and me” is a series of talks by guest speakers about their life and experiences in the service.

The talks, which will take place at the National Cold War exhibition lecture theatre at the RAF Museum in Cosford, form part of the museum’s RAF Stories project, an online collection accessible for everyone to submit, share and explore stories of people’s personal connections to the RAF.

Each guest speaker has a different and diverse story to tell about their RAF career.

Paul "Twitch" Twitchell will reflect on the downs and ups of his life in the service

On Saturday, August 31, Air Commodore Paul Godfrey will share his knowledge and experiences of three seasons with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), which included flying the Spitfire, Hurricane and Chipmunk aircraft. On Saturday, September 14, Sgt Paul “Twitch” Twitchell will talk about his journey from suffering from the post-traumatic stress disorder that threatened to destroy his life after several tours of Iraq, to changing his life around through the help of Prince Harry to become an Invictus Games medallist.

On Saturday, October 12, Caroline Paige will reflect on her story of transitioning gender, while still in active service. Despite the criticism at the time, Caroline became the first transgender officer to openly serve.

in the armed forces and served another 16 years on the front-line of military flying.

Air Commodore Paul Godfrey will share his knowledge and experiences of three seasons with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF)

RAF Museum Community Engagement Officer: RAF Stories, Jess Boydon spoke about the opportunity available to hear these stories.

She said: “The forthcoming talks are an opportunity for interested members of the public to hear first-hand some of the great stories already captured by the project.”

All three talks are free and will begin at 2pm. Seats are limited, so go to raf museumorg/cosford to book.

To find out more about the RAF Stories project, go to http://www.rafstories.org/