Once their initial training was done they were asked to volunteer for a special detachment, so in spite of the fact that it was known  you should never volunteer in the services, they did, mainly because they were bored, Both were accepted. They were sent to Liverpool University where they were taught Russian by a Mr Dolski, an ardent White Russian.. Given free range of the university facilities they joined the drama society, as they had the best looking girls. In fact they only went back to camp for pay parade. When asked where they had been all week they simply said they had been doing their Russian corse.

            The golden period of their training however eventually came to an end, and they were sent to Scotland where they did their parachute training and spent several nights crawling through mud. After that they were taught how to use all the Russian weapons; how to drive a T34 tank and how to strip and reassemble a Kalashnikov in 30 seconds. Of the fifteen volunteers from all over the country that had volunteered only seven survived to the end. Brian and Ginger wondered why.

            The idea was that if the British army was advancing they would drop in before them and capture the airfields before they could be destroyed and if the British army was retreating they would stay behind and make the airfields unusable.  It was at this point that the two friends  regretted not heeding the adage that in the forces you should never volunteer for anything. This was obviously a suicide unit

            However it was not long after this that the squadron that they had been attached to was scheduled to go to Korea. The Korean War was at its height at the time and the Allies were getting the worst of it. Then, at the last minute, some bright spark in the Air Ministry had the bright thought that they had spent a lot of money and resources training this special unit to fight the Russians, and now they were going to get killed by the Chinese. They did not go. It probably saved their life.