This is an ariel view of Drake Barracks.  As you can see it is side by side with the dockyard so easy access.  Drake is a large base but by no means the largest.  I enjoyed my time here and had a few mishaps.  One interesting one was not noticing that the pilot light had gone out in the oven.  These were large ovens and unlike today did not have the same safety feature.  If the pilot light went out the gas continued to trickle in meaning during the night the oven had filled up with gas.  When I realised the pilot light was out I lit a taper and put in in under the oven where the pilot was.  The resulting explosion blew the two heavy doors open throwing me back over the bench to land about 8 feet away.  I was pink, my arms were pink and so was my face.  My eyelashes and eyebrows were all badly singed and I was shaking from shock.  Although there had been a huge flash all i had suffered was I suspect the very top layer of skin had been burnt leaving me pink.  A Colleague of mine sat me down with a cup of tea and a little while later I was sent home.