Lifestyle From RAF Russian Linguist To British Diplomat. How An RAF Russian Linguist Became A Diplomat. What was the journey from the RAF to the Diplomatic Service? Did my military service and qualifications help with the process? All reasonable questions, so here is a brief description of the journey.
The Diplomatic Service was in effect my second career. Prior to joining, my first was serving as a Russian/German dual linguist with the Royal Air Force (RAF).
On joining the RAF, I took the language aptitude exam and was fortunate enough to pass and be offered the opportunity to become a linguist. So, after 2 years intensive Russian language training at the RAF School of Languages at RAF North Luffenham near Stamford, I was posted to West Berlin . Although based/housed at RAF Gatow on the far western fringes of the city, my place of work was Teufelsberg, which was a joint US/UK facility. It dominated the Berlin skyline, being built on top of a man-made mountain (from WW2 rubble). To say the work there was interesting would be an understatement!
Some years later, I returned to the RAF School of Language Training in the UK to qualify as a dual linguist, my second language being German. On completion of the 18 month course, I returned back to Berlin and back to Teufelsberg.
Although the bulk of my RAF career was spent in West Berlin, I also had postings in the UK, to GCHQ in Cheltenham and then to RAF Wyton where I had the opportunity of working as an airborne linguist with 51 Squadron who at that time were flying the Nimrod R1.