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RFA sailors reunite at sea for the first time since training – 48 years ago
18 September 2025
Forty-eight years to the day this Saturday Graham McEwan and Paul Wilcox passed through the gates of HMS Raleigh to begin their training as sailors.
And four dozen years later… the pair are together again as their careers came full circle for the first time since that autumn as the two are shipmates in tanker RFA Tidesurge, supporting the UK’s flagship HMS Prince of Wales and her task group deployed to the Indo-Pacific region.
The duo walked through the gates of HMS Raleigh as 16-year-olds on September 20 1977. Elvis was enjoying a posthumous No.1 while 007 was the top draw at the box office in The Spy Who Loved Me.
Back then pint of beer cost a mere 38p. A fish supper was a bargain 25p. The best-selling car on the nation’s roads was a Ford Cortina (£2k new – about £10k today). The average house price was around £12k.
Against this backdrop, the two teenagers embarked on careers in Royal Navy communications.
2/O McEwan spent 19 years in the Senior Service, working his way up from a junior radio operator to communications yeoman serving in pretty much every class of ship. After a brief spell as a civil servant at Fort Southwick Communications Centre before going back to sea – this time with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the crucial support arm of the Royal Navy.
He went on to become one of the first communication officers in the history of the RFA, adding to the global travel he enjoyed with the Royal Navy – and earning medals for service in Iran, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, and Afghanistan.
His shipmate – despite both men working in the comms world, this is the first time the pair have served together since passing out at Raleigh – has enjoyed an equally rich and even more varied career.
CR1 Wilcox has had an extremely varied career. After eight years as a naval radio operator, he earned the green beret on the all-arms course, then was assigned to the gunners of 29 Commando for four years.
That led to a transfer to the Army and a 19-year career as a soldier and service in (deep breath) the Caribbean, America, Gibraltar, Sicily, Madeira, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Sardinia, Naples, Istanbul, Cyprus, Norway and the British Virgin Islands – then another 12 years in the Army Reserve.
With 45 years’ service already under his belt, Paul still fancied both a fresh career … and returned to sea with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fleet in 2021… and has stayed there. Collectively the duo have more than 90 years in uniform between them.