RAF Kinloss prepares for closure
RAF Kinloss personnel take a break during practice for the next week's disbandment ceremony
SERVICEMEN and women are preparing for the beginning of the end of RAF Kinloss.
Over 100 personnel from the three air squadrons and across the station were meticulously rehearsed for their final formal duties together.
The disbandment parade for 42 (Reserve), 120 and 201 Squadrons will take place next Thursday (May 26).
On Tuesday, Kinloss personnel will exercise their right to the Freedom of Forres for the last time by marching through the town on Tuesday morning.
Yesterday, those taking part in the disbandment parade were put through their paces, making sure nothing would be out of place when the formal event is carried out in front of the Duke of Edinburgh next week.
The death knell was sounded for Kinloss last October when Prime Minister David Cameron announced the scrapping of the new MRA4 Nimrod aircraft in the Strategic Defence and Security Review, an aircraft which was to be homed at the Moray base.
Sister station RAF Lossiemouth still faces an uncertain future, with a decision on whether it will remain open not expected until June or July.
The airfield at Kinloss will cease to operate from the end of July and will close as an RAF station on 31 March 2013.
