UAS and Gulf War 1

[JP1]

Back in 91 my girlfriend was at Bath Uni, and her roommates boyfriend was in the UAS. Anyway as GW1 kicked off she told me that he had be issued with fastjet kit in preparation with being shipped out to the Gulf as a contingency I guess, (ferrying aircraft was also mentioned I believe). Anyway falling off my chair backwards, laughing extremely loudly didn't go down too well since she had spent the whole week lending a shoulder to cry on for her girlfriend. Any attempt by me to say what utter b%^&*T wasn't worth going there.

Anyway 16 years later and with Pprune. I thought I would ask to see if by any chance was there anything even remotely true about this story.

Cheers
JP1

[Tiger_mate]

Was his name Walter?

[airborne_artist]

I expect he served with 49Para (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=130296837) as well :E

Total bolleaux. UAS and Air Training Corps officers have no wartime commitment, and can not be mobilised. Undergraduates who are members of the TA (and the OTC for that matter) can not be mobilised either.

[Sven Sixtoo]

Sort of thing that did go on
When GW 1 kicked off, I was BALO 19 Bde. On 15 Dec 90 I received a signal ordering me to refresher trg on the Puma. The intention being that I would go to Belize or NI and release a CR Puma pilot for the war. On 16 Dec 90 I received a signal ordering me to report to HQBFME for onward movement to join 1 US Marine Div as the Brit ALO and (by implication) participate in the kicking in of the Iraqui front door.
Regrettably I failed to follow the original order and asked which order I should follow. Result - several months in the sandpit.
However, back to the point. I was scheduled to be diverted to a flying job. But it was elsewhere to release qualified guys for the war. And at the time I had about 3000 hours and 3 frontline tours before going to a ground job.
UAS guy was shooting a line to get in somebody's knickers, IMHO.
Sven

[BEagle]

I was serving on a UAS in 1990 and was then sent to fly in the Gulf.

After getting home from Abingdon on 17 Sep I was advised that I was 'vulnerable for recall' to go out to theatre. I had visions of being an Ops Officer or something equally tedious; however, a couple of days later my boss informed me that I was going to be retrained on the VC10K - which I hadn't flown for 17 months.

Did an AR5 course on 21 Sep, then continued at the UAS until being sent to 241OCU for refresher training on 4 Oct. A bit of groundschool, a couple of sim trips (with a day or two back at the UAS for light relief), then 6 trips of refresher training including an IRT to Wildenrath and back - as well as receiver training, then flew a VC10K to Muharraq on 17 Oct.

Stayed at Muharraq until 10 Dec when my crew was lucky enough to get a couple of weeks back in the UK before we flew back out to KKIA Riyadh on 30 Dec 90.

Riyadh until the war ended some 11 weeks and 50 sorties later, then back home again on 13 Mar - before rejoining the UAS 2 days later.

241OCU had only taken 6 trips and a couple of sims to retrain me on the VC10K; however, Learning Command insisted on 10 trips in the Bulldog before they would let me instruct again..... As usual, the bull$hit was inversely proportional to the importance of the task!

At the end of my UAS tour, I'd flown 1188 hours - of which only 71% were on the Bulldog.

So yes, methinks that unless the girlfriend's room mate had a boyfriend who was a UAS instructor, he was indeed probably just a Walt intend on talking his way into her knickers.

[diginagain]

.....shooting a line to get in somebody's knickers........

Not that anyone here would do such a thing................:)

[ExRAFRadar]

While at Bentley Priory myself and another chap who was one of those annoying OR's who could pass for an Officer (In a bad light and as long as anyone didn't actually ask him anything) passed ourselves off as FJ aircrew at some tarts party.

Almost worked till some spotter type noticed I was wearing glasses and the more pi**ed I got the more my story was changing.

I think it was the bit about landing a Tornado on HMS Ark Royal that let me down. But I was Wined up by then.

Another JT I knew well, broke his arm playing rugby while the South Atlantic punch up was on and he never discouraged anyone from buying him a beer in the pub because they thought he had just come back.

Part and Parcel of forces life isn't it. Or is all taken much more serious now.

[gijoe]

PM me his name or put it on here with a few ** as I was at said university and UAS at this time.

The OC volunteered us for a task but it wasn't shifting GR1s around the country.

He was a good bloke, the OC :}

[ExAdvert]

Nope, all utter hoop. The chances of any UAS Cadet being asked to do anything remotely connected with flying a FJ to/ in GW1 are zero. Or less. I know because I was one at the time.

Although I also used exactly the same line on a young lady at a certain northern University with some success (well, she was blonde). So if you're out there reading this Claire, I'd just like to say sorry. And I didn't get shot down in a Jaguar either.;)

[BEagle]

"We will not lie, cheat or steal. Nor tolerate amongst us anyone who does."

A shame that simple standard was ignored by a few Walts lacking honesty, such as those above, who admit to having lied to further their fortunes with the opposite sex.

[Pontius Navigator]

BEagle's point about back-filling was very true though.

In GW1 there were great worries about casualties and our local military hospital, now an old folks's home and housing estate, was activated.

Our GP got his call-up papers. He would be seconded to casualty reception. We don't think he read passed the MOD Header and Dear Dr XXXXXXX you are .... casualty ..... before he was in a blue funk thinking about going somewhere sandy, how his regular 4-week break in Disney World in February was about to go up in smoke etc.

I have been tempted ever since :}

[Release-Authorised]

They were just trying to foster the Bulldog spirit amongst the troops....:}

[BEagle]

I also think that it was the overall small number of casualties in GW1 which actually encouraged the wretched beancounters to close all the RAF hospitals. An act of utter treachery.

The madness of closing Wroughton, with its close proximity to the Lyneham airhead cannot be stressed too highly. In fact if anything, Wroughton should have been reactivated as an aerodrome and the hospital brought up to modern day standards.

Weren't our VC10s supposed to be flying ambulances, able to rush serious case back to Episkopi or Wroughton in time of war under the care of AeroMed teams?

There has been little reported about the number of badly injured service personnel being repatriated from Bliar's sandpits..........

[Regie Mental]

I dare say an FOI request to the MoD may give you the figures you want.

In Telic 1 a pair of VC.10s were based at Aki and shuttled between there and theatre on a daily bais. They were supported by regular and reservist aeromed teams, casualties being either transferred to Princess Mary's or flown home by medevac civair. Pity the medevac reservists weren't officially acknowledged for their sterling efforts as they weren't based in theatre, no wonder many left shortly afterward.

[JP1]

gijoe,

If you were on the squadron I am sure you will remember him, since he would have been your tallest squadron mate; eventually being rejected for the RAF for being too tall.

I only posted the question because I remember it definititely f^&^&*g up the weekend when I visited my gf. She was no idiot, being sponsored by the MOD, having previously worked for them for 4 years. She was also considerably more attractive than his gf so maybe it was her knickers he was trying to get into. But shooting a line to his own gf was rather a wasted shot I would say.

He definitely told them it was FJ kit that he was fitted for, there is no doubt about that. Of course I knew it was total B&*&^^s but I couldn't really understand why he would say it. He knew my gf had no interest in him at all.

So what job did your Boss have in mind, that got translated to dogfighing Iraqi Migs to save the west?

[rolling20]

Sounds like something we did on UWAS in 1982...Falklands was on and we were all keen to do our bit! However, all we could have done was possibly some guard duties on the base , releasing other bods!
Anyways as a wind up we had our secretary write up an 'emergency commissioning' letter to some poor sod on the squadron. It looked so good we all soon were demanding them for a line shoot!
Im sure mines in the loft somewhere....

[scribbler614]

Was a stude on a UAS further east during GW1, and though it pains me to admit it the idea of any of us having anything useful to contribute to the war effort is a hoot. Guard duty? I wouldn't have let me loose with a water pistol. Flying? Not a hope. Thanks to our fine instructors we could land the trusty 'dog without trashing the wheels, but put us in a fast jet and we'd have struggled to strap in correctly, let alone press a button.
We could drink a bit, mind, and wouldn't embarrass ourselves at mess rugby.
I'm a huge fan of the old-style UASs, and their demise is a tragedy, but we all know they did not churn out steely-eyed dealers of death. They educated youngsters in the ways of the RAF. A bit.
Doesn't even sound as if this bloke's chat up line worked. And as Beagle observed, it's shocking to think anyone would be less than 100% truthful just for the sake of a shag. Shame on him.:E

[gijoe]

Old boss was an Albert driver - renowned for being a bit odd and egotist.

Anyway I seem to remember that he volunteered us lot for a few duties at the home of the Albert and said leave your phone numbers at the UAS over Xmas leave.

Guess what? Plenty of wrong ones left.

I think that he is now in the Head Shed of an orange clad airline and probably decrying anybody who does not wears 2 wings as worthless...which is funny for a bloke that started as a liney. Knob. :=

There was a number of tall blokes at the UAS at that time - I don't remember any particularly tall ones at Bath. Any more clues? There weren't that many of us and we did stick together to fend off the actions of the 'richer than thou' posse of Oxbridge rejects...sorry...Bristol studes. :ok:

G

[JP1]

His dad was the training captain for Concorde. No bull**** since I did meet him. His first name began with J. Can't remember his last. And if any guys were taller than him I would be suprized.

[ACW599]

>And as Beagle observed, it's shocking to think anyone would be less than 100% truthful just for the sake of a shag. Shame on him.<

An absolutely outrageous suggestion. No RAF person would ever do such a thing. However . . .

A certain male staff cadet on a certain Midlands VGS some years ago did his best to, er, become more friendly with a certain female staff cadet by claiming that he was actually a Tornado pilot detached to help the VGS out. His ploy almost succeeded until his mum came to collect him one day . . .

[BEagle]

Wherupon it emerged that he was actually just a Harrier pilot, I guess?

[ACW599]

>Wherupon it emerged that he was actually just a Harrier pilot, I guess?<

If I recall correctly, he went on to become a Jaguar pilot!

[TorqueOfTheDevil]

it's shocking to think anyone would be less than 100% truthful


It's not just the guys who do this kind of thing, though the motive in the following case is slightly different.

Perhaps 5 years ago, girlie nav stude, just been streamed ME and v unhappy with this, is at a Happy Hour at a Lincolnshire airbase. Gets chatting to a couple of senior officers, including a Wg Cdr, and before long she is asked what she does.

"Oh, I'm a stude on the F3 OCU", she trills.

"Well that's strange," says the Wg Cdr. "I've never seen you before and I'm OC 56!"

[gijoe]

The moral being...know your audience! :D