A veteran RAF flier is about to retire after 50 years in uniform.
Sqn Ldr Mike Neil, 68 from Drayton, near Abingdon, started as an Air Training Corps cadet in the late 1940s. He is finally bowing out after an outstanding career, both as a serving officer and, more recently, as a part-time volunteer reservist.
SqnLdr Mike Neil
To mark his half-century, friends and former colleagues are throwing a party in his honour later this month at RAF Benson, home of the unit he commanded from 1984 to 1993 - No 6 Air Experience Flight.
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Before that the unit, which gives keen young air cadets their first taste of flying, was stationed at RAF Abingdon.
After gaining a flying scholarship, Sqn Ldr Neil joined the RAF in 1951. He joined a jet fighter squadron before becoming a flying instructor
After retiring in 1998, he stayed on as a Volunteer Reserve staff pilot. He joked: "I've retired a few times, but this time it's for real - I'm past my sell-by date!"
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