GET the kettle on, plump yourself in your comfiest chair, Jeff's back - and now he's online.

IT'S TIME for our weekly wander through the tracks of our years, when we can reminisce and ruminate about anything that takes our fancy to our hearts' content.

My own fascination with regard to how it was in Milford during the war often spills over into my TRM columns.

It's just that, having been a war baby, I enjoy hearing all kinds of different tales from those who lived through the experience.

That's why, this week, I'm delighted to include the first instalment of a special set of memories that have been penned by Milford's very own Lt. Col. Douglas Joyce, ACF Rtd., and passed on to me to share in TRM.

Here are Doug's words:

My Story of the Pembrokeshire and Dyfed Army Cadet Force.

With age, memories may well tend to be faulty, so please take this into consideration.

In March,1942, the first of many ACF Detachments were formed in Pembs, Carms, and Cards.

Many were first started in schools and commanded by teachers, as in Milford Haven Central School, Captain Morgan, who was the history teacher, also his brother Kelvin, who worked in the Mine Depot.

Later they were joined by Ralph Llewellyn, also a teacher in the school, and then Roddy Davies, he eventually became a Major and the CO of the Regiment and a Deputy Lieutenant of Pembrokeshire.

The RSM at this time was an adult invalided out of the Welsh Guards, George Hall, the son of J. P. Hall, the well known Milford baker, whose shop was on the corner of Greville Road.

They had use of the school hall and the classrooms and, of course, the playground to do their drill.

Arms drill was was done by using broom sticks, as no arms were available at this time.

It was at the end of 1942 when I joined the ACF, the war was in full swing, and all of us young men of 14 years of age or over, wanted to get into uniform, be it Army, Navy or Air Force.

It was a cold and wet winters night when I walked into the old shop at the bottom of Charles Street, which was the Local HQ of the ACF detachment in Milford Haven.

I was escorted into OC by one of the Cadet NCO's, this, to my surprise, turned out to be my local dentist, Captain Drinkall, who welcomed me, and explained to me all about the ACF and what was expected of me.

The following week I was kitted out with my uniform and started my training.

In 1942, when I joined, we had little in the way of rifles or bren guns, we had to rely on lectures and films.

Time moved on to 1943, and by now we had moved to the old National School at the bottom of Charles Street, where we had more room.

We remained there until 1944, when we moved into the Drill Hall, sharing with the 4th Welsh TA Regiment.

Everything now was getting much better inasmuch as we now had a good supply of firearms, and our training improved.

We had started to do weekend camps at Penally, and sitting our Proficiency Certificates.

A Part 1 and Part 2, and with passes in those came promotion to NCOs.

At this stage some of us volunteered to act as runners for the Home Guard in the evenings, taking messages from one Pill Box to another... these were concrete bunkers on the outskirts of town where the Home Guard would be on duty all night in case of enemy invasion, they were there to resist or harass the enemy.

To us Cadets this was great excitement.

Also at this time, Milford Cadets had a very good soccer side, beating all Pembs sides in their class.

The team included Roy Mills, Joey Morris, Wyndham Phillips, Ted Forrest, John Winter, Charlie Phillips, Bunty Howells, Eddie Davies, Jack Morris, Reg Kingston, and Ted Harding.

And in the words of Ted: 'Milford Cadets were the smartest, cleanest, shootingist, fightingist, footballingist and best looking Unit in Pembs and beyond'.

He forgot to say we were also very modest.

I seem to recall some of the cadets in Haverfordwest: Denis Pritchard, Totti Phillips, who later played soccer for H/west Town. At that time, between Milford and Harfat cadets numbered about 200 plus.

Neyland was a smaller unit, but with a lot of talent..some I remember.

Roy Mason, Derek Rees, and his brother, C. Mason and Roy Bryant. They all attended Milford Grammar School, and most were in my class, including Frank Gamble, but I will mention him later.

I believe they were all in the Neyland ACF band.

I think we'll leave it there for the moment, but I'll be returning to Doug's memoirs soon.

If anyone feels like sharing some of their own ACF experiences, please get in touch.

Meanwhile, here are two fitting snaps to go with it.

One is of Milford's 1944 ACF football team, and the other a reproduction of a Bob Rickard painting, showing a German DO 18K seaplane laying mines near Dale Roads, on a moonlit 1941 evening.

Now for our teasers, last week's answer was..if you take the 1st letter of each word, place it at the end, it spells the same word backwards.

Those who unravelled it were..Hoppy Atkinson, Les Haynes, Roy Holman, Margaret Jones, Charles Wetherall, Lesley High, Anne and Jets Llewellyn.

How about this one ?

What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?

Many thanks for the many kind comments I've had, like from Myfanwy, who said..

"Welcome back, you've been missed," and from Lesley, who said.."Love your column..keep the teasers coming please."

Time for me to look busy, but before I go, can anyone help out "Hoppy," who's trying to find out the "Fairy Field" was so called.

When he was a nipper, playing on the Meads tip, he'd get a tin sheet or an old car bonnet, and slide "like the clappers" down the bank to the railway line.

That's all from me, see you soon.

More from Jeff Dunn in tomorrow's Mercury (Thursday), just 30p.