Although the origin of Tiger Meet is a bit fuzzy, it appears to have started with the 79th and No 74 squadron RAF getting together for some whiskey and cheer in 1960. In 1961 the meeting was continued, with the addition of the French EC 1/12, and so the NATO Tiger Association was born. In 1962 then Lt Mike Dugan volunteered as project officer. Lt Dugan, never one to let authority corrupt fighter pilot activities, decided it should be a true “NATO Tiger Day“. He therefore sent letters directly to all the tigers for which he found an address. A number of units immediately accepted but returned their reply “through channels “. This of course resulted in all the HQs (USAFE, 3rd AF, and the 20th Wing) descending on the 79th with “requests” as to what the hell we thought we were doing. Mike’s program won the Wing Commander’s support and they, in turn convinced Head Quarters that NATO Tigers was possible. About this same time a London paper headlined an article, “IRON CROSSES OVER SUFFOLK” or something close. I then got a call from an RAF friend at Fighter Command. It was a “friendly consultation” about “Yank” ignorance. It seems that at that time no German military aircraft were allowed near the UK. He had just spent the day un-ruffling the feathers of the Prime Minister’s press office. He’d indicated to the PR boys that both the RAF and other NATO forces were involved and a refusal of the German forces would be difficult. The result was a limited and somewhat miffed consent. USAFE also approved with file usual admonition that nothing bad better happen. After such a bumpy start, Mike’s planning and drive got everything on track and with the help of a world of people it became a success. A couple of other events colored that gathering. We had a motley assortment of tiger emblems, but the spirit was there. The French brought a large transport loaded with ammo boxes for the various competitions. When opened, most of the boxes contained champagne! The Biggin Hill 'Tiger Moth Club” almost invited themselves. This turned out to be a lucky move, since weather on the flyby day was about 400 ft. in heavy rain. Not to be discouraged -the Moths took off in flights of three and four to do flybys and low level acrobatics. A weird day. 

From 10 to may 19, the NATO Tiger Meet was held at BA 103 Cambrai-Epinoy. This is the home base of squadron EC  01.012 “Cambraisis” and its Tiger flight SPA 162. 2011 is an important year because of the 50th anniversary of those Tiger meetings. Unfortunately, this year, due to the military operation in Libya, some units (like NATO’s 1 Sqn, Belgian 31, Netherlands 313 Sqn, Norway 338 Sqn and UK 230 Sqn) have cancelled their participation to the event. 

The very first Tiger Meet took place at Woodbridge in 1961. Since that date, the Tiger Meet became each year a bigger military event. At the beginning, it was an informal meeting between Tiger squadrons. Now it is actually an important military date. The exercises include many missions, typically one in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Each raid is flown by around twenty combat aircraft with a variety of tasks like air superiority, reconnaissance or bombing. The air operation was planned in a specific airspace area around Cambrai, above the north-east quarter of France, and some Belgian and German airspace. 

During this Tiger Meet, the base Cambrai welcomed 1100 people coming from 17 different countries. Food and drink for all this crowd was provided by the French Army from installations similar to those deployed in external operation theatres. May 11, 16 and 17 were three days planned for spotters (1500 persons a day) to give the best opportunities to take pictures of the beautiful tiger painted planes. On May 17th, the weather was cloudy in the morning but eventually the sun broke through by noon. The morning mission was planned around 10h00-12h00 local time and the second mission around 14h00-16h00. The first jet engine started around 9h00 and the first take-off took place at 9h28. The last combat aircraft being airborne was a pair of Slovak MiG-29 at 10h50. The planes took off for the second mission in more spaced boxes, each patrol alone. So departures took place from 13h18 to 14h55. The last to leave were three helicopters (2 AB-212 from IAF and 1 Czech Mil-24). In the afternoon, photographers who were familiar with the BA 103 neighbourhood left the air base to go to the end of runway. They were right because the heat generated a lot of reverberation at ground level above the runway. A Tiger Meet is always a great event with a particular atmosphere. Not only are the planes wearing tiger stripes but pilots and technicians too. Some units came with their own tiger car. 1/12 Cambraisis has a bike, a motorbike, and a Citroen 2CV. The 31th Squadron of the Belgian air force came with a Jaguar (not the plane, but the car!).  The 321th Squadron of German air force came from Lechfeld with a car and a scooter bike. We were amazed by a refuelling truck that was fully tiger painted except for the cabin. 2011 was a great year.

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