" Upper Heyford High School was established in the Fall of 1966, in an old barracks where prisoners of war were sometimes held during World War II. Most of the students and faculty came from American bases in France after French President Charles DeGaulle withdrew his country from military involvement with NATO and told the American armed forces to leave.
There was an elementary school and a junior high school at Upper Heyford at the time, but high school students attended Lakenheath High School, staying in dorms during the school week and returning home on weekends. However, when the Americans who had been in France arrived at Upper Heyford and High Wycombe, there were far too many new students for Lakenheath to accomodate, and there wasn't time to build a new high school, so the old barracks were made available and became Upper Heyford High School. Maroon and white was selected as the school colors, and Rick Hunter '68 and Mike Brown '69, came up with the school nickname, the Hadites.
It wasn't pretty, and some of the roofs leaked when it rained, and we froze our butts off in the winter because half the pipe radiators in the classrooms didn't work, but it was ours!! We didn't even have a gym, we had to take a bus over to the base gym, or walk if we missed the bus, and we didn't have a football field... our home games were played on a field over at Croughton, but we were having the time of our lives, and many of my friends back then are still my best friends today!!
In the Fall of 1975, the school closed at Upper Heyford and was moved to RAF Croughton, but was still called Upper Heyford High School until the end of the Spring semester in 1982. Beginning with the Fall semester of 1982, the school officially became Croughton High School. With the end of the Cold War and reduction of American forces in Europe, CHS was closed in 1997, bringing an end to the Hadite legacy. The school may be closed, but our Hadite spirit lives on... "
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