Hair today, gone tomorrow, for 1950s airman Norman

Knowing that his day of freedom was coming up, for two months he had not had a haircut and had cultivated a fashionable 1950s style known as a DA. The D stood for Duck's, and the A for a particular posterior part of its anatomy.

Official demob time was at noon on May 28, 1958.

But there was a last minute problem. The top brass had called a parade for the whole camp – he was stationed at RAF Wittering – for 10am.

"I naturally thought I would not have to parade... but thought wrong," recalled Norman, writing in the magazine for the membership of the National Service (RAF) Association.

Norman, who is now 80 and lives in Bucknell, said: "My billet mates tended to me by combing all the hair at the back of my head upwards and pinned it on the top, like a 1940s ladies' style. With my peaked cap on top I might get away with it and so, with two hours left of my service, I found myself in the ranks with about another 2,000 airmen waiting to be inspected by top brass."

The inevitable happened. The inspecting entourage passed in front of his file and then went down the back, where they stopped directly behind him.

"An NCO tapped me on the shoulder and said: 'Take your hat off airman.' I did as ordered and felt my hair drop. There was about 10 seconds' silence from behind, then I heard someone utter: 'Good God!'

"An NCO then said: 'Step out of rank airman.' I was frogmarched around the back of the block by a regimental NCO and told I was a disgrace and was on a charge. 'But I'm demobbed at 12 o'clock,' I said, 'and have a train to catch at 1.30.'

"He looked at his watch and said: 'Right, get a haircut, then go to the stores and buy a new cap and report back to me at 11.45.'

"The haircut was 1s/6d and the cap was 3s/6d. I left the new cap in the billet before I finally left the station."

Another memory from the start of his service was having his first 48 hour pass when he was at RAF Bridgnorth, which did initial training for recruits. Dressed in his neatly pressed best blues, he set off marching smartly to Bridgnorth railway station three miles away, when a Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud drew up beside him and the driver offered him a lift.

"The driver, it turned out, was the owner of Stanmore Hall, a huge country house close to the RAF camp. I have often wondered if the country gentleman often offered lifts to other Bridgnorth 'erks' at that time. Did anyone else get a ride in his splendid vehicle?"

On a less savoury note, Norman says he was the victim of continuing sexual assaults by a corporal at RAF Melksham in 1956.

"The corporal caused me untold stress and affected my trade training as an instrument mechanic which after completion would have given me the rank of AC1.

"The abuse finally ended by me thumping him full in the face and leaving him slumped in an armchair with a bloody nose and a threat that if he ever touched me again I would kill him. I asked to be taken off the course with the excuse that I was not interested and was immediately moved to the transit billet where I was the lone occupant and lived for a week in fear of being arrested for striking an NCO.

"Luckily this did not happen and shortly afterwards I was given my new posting, where I thoroughly enjoyed the further 21 months of my National Service, gaining the rank of LAC in another trade."