To contact the FNF Secretary: Press here
Veterans Affairs
The Government’s Office For Veterans Affairs has been doing a major amount of updating of information on its website in the past couple of weeks.
Anyone signed-up to receive email updates will probably have stopped counting after the first 60 or so emails. With that many different topics, there is no point in listing them all here. The best thing is for veterans and their families to sign up and have a look for themselves.
The updates ranged from the list of charities and businesses supporting veterans and their families, to employment, mental and physical health and wellbeing, to homelessness, Veterans with Dogs and those who love motorsport – as well as everything else in-between.
Please advertise the links below widely, as there is a great deal of support for veterans and their families, which many will not be aware of.
.https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs
Watch - For when you win our lottery
With 2024 being the 100th anniversary of the formation of the FAA this limited-edition Holton from Elliot Brown has been designed to commemorate this special occasion and raise funds for Navy Wings to help preserve our rich and decorated heritage.
The watch is a bead blasted stainless steel case with a NIVO (Night Invisible Varnish, Orfordness) dial with repeating FAA zigzag background pattern printed in gloss clear over matt with FLEET AIR ARM microprinted at 6H and 100 YEARS below. The 3 and 6 positions are coloured with red and green for port and stbd.
The seconds hand is tipped with blue; the date 24th printed in blue; triangle at 12H outlined in blue. The FAA insignia is in relief in the centre of the caseback with ROYAL NAVY FLEET AIR ARM above and CENTENARY EDITION below, and a space for the owner’s personal engraving below. The caseback also includes the NATO symbols for Helo, Fast Jet and UAV.
The Holton Professional was developed in response to a request from a specialist military unit who demanded a fit-for-purpose professional watch capable of a life on operations and following extensive testing is now the standard issue NATO stock item for supply. This version is the first GMT Holton and the dial incorporates the specialist paint that was developed in 1918 to reduce the reflectiveness of aircraft for night time operations.
Elliot Brown is the only UK watch manufacturer to be awarded the Armed Forces Covenant Gold Award for their support to the Armed Forces community. To date they have donated over £750,000 to military charities. Every watch purchased will realise a £60 donation to Navy Wings.
• Beadblasted stainless steel case and bezel
• Flat sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating
• Unidirectional hardened steel bezel
• Screw in strap bars
• Screw down crown
• Individually tested to 200m in water
• Interchangeable straps
• Dial lume colour is split so it glows green for normal time functions and blue for GMT functions.
• Japanese Seiko self-winding automatic movement with independently adjustable GMT hand with Broad Arrow tip
• Bezel can be turned with a gloved palm
• Caseback insignia will always be vertical
£795 on Coyote rubber strap £915 on matching steel bracelet. Heritage leather straps also available and split payments also available.
And should you not win...
Veterans of Britain’s nuclear test programme are to receive a newly designed medal in time for Remembrance Day, the government says.
The release of the design follows a years-long fight for recognition by veterans and their families, who said exposure to nuclear tests had caused cancer and premature deaths among thousands of people who took part, as well as causing health problems for their families.
The first medals will be available in time for Remembrance Sunday on 12 November, the government said. However, they will not be issued automatically – veterans and relatives wanting posthumous recognition will need to apply, and survivors will be prioritised over next of kin
Britain's Top Guns - The Fleet Air Arm Story
It is the little known, but epic, saga of Britain’s naval aviation from its earliest days in 1908 and WWI’s Royal Naval Air Service, to the cutting-edge Fleet Air Arm of today’s Royal Navy.
Flying from ships at sea puts unique pressures on air and ground crew in some of the most hostile environments and operational circumstances on earth.
This is a story about the world’s oldest naval aviation service and the men and women who, for more than a century, have done their duty in conflicts all over the world, and still do so today. It’s a story that deserves to be told
Retired Metoc Steve Howard at Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial 31 March 2023
Steve is the smart one
Steve is a well-travelled man. His exploits, along with the Menin Gate story can be followed in his blog at https://www.driverandchef.co.uk/2023-greece/to-istanbul
Fly Navy Federation
The Fly Navy Federation was set up as an umbrella organisation enabling all the Fleet Air Arm Associations to maintain a common contact point with each other and to pull together when appropriate. With the amalgam of all the Associations there is a wealth of knowledge and experience which could be of use in helping and supporting those currently serving.
Although the FNF has brought all the FAA Associations together, it is a very loose alliance allowing the individual groups to retain their autonomy. The aim of the Federation is to assist in promoting significant anniversaries and celebrations and to assist those currently serving to promote the Fleet Air Arm in all its facets and to ensure that it maintains a profile that is to the forefront of public awareness.
A secondary aim is to promote the individual associations, some of whom help to keep ‘dead’ branches alive and prevent them from disappearing onto oblivion; others are still functioning but sadly their very existence may come into question. Many individual associations maintain links with those currently serving and the Federation will support, where possible, any campaigns involving the retention and viability of any part or former part of the FAA.
The Federation march as a body each Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph, following this with their own Service of Remembrance at the FAA Memorial on the Embankment. They are also responsible, as a group, for instigating the placing of plaques around the FAA Memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum. In addition the FNF had considerable input into the 2009 celebration to commemorate 100 years of naval aviation under the banner of Fly Navy 100.
.https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs
