In July 64 the Navy were preparing for a major exercise. All the ships were giving cocktail parties before sailing. The Monday night party lead to invitations to the Tuesday night party on a different ship on 21 July. I duly arrived, clad in white DJ, with 3 lady schoolteachers, wearing low cut tropical Cocktail Dresses. The party continued normally until it was time to leave. One of the ladies was remaining overnight on the ship, so the other 3 of us left to go home. When we got to the North Gate we were told by a Sikh guard that the gate was closed because " All of the natives were revolting!". We went to the South gate where an RN Policeman told us that there were massive riots taking place and that a curfew was in place. We then went to the Wardroom for news and refreshments, quite a good impromptu party occured. Eventually we were told that the curfew was on over night.
I arranged for the ladies to stay in the RN Teachers Mess and, since there were no spare cabins, shared the settees in the Ladies Room with a Canadian and an Australian Lts. The first few Lt Cdrs to say " It's nice to see sombody dressing for Breakfast" were quite funny, but it did pall with repetition. The curfew had been lifted so I collected the ladies to take them home. We were stopped every few hundred yards by roadblocks manned by British, Gurkha and local forces. They all seemed to enjoy the low cut dresses of my companions! Late morning I arrived at the Mess and phoned the squadron, to be told to report as soon as I was ready.
At the squadron I was told to report to the boss's office. He said " I hear you are a bit of a ladies man." I replied " Possibly, Sir". " Good" he says "All of the station wives have come in to the Coffee Morning, and the curfew has been reimposed. You are the Convoy Commander to take them home. Get your pistol from the Armoury and report to the Regt Flight to meet your escort". At the Regt Flight I was briefed on the situation - which was that all of the husbands were confined to base and the wives were on base for the Coffee Morning, leaving the kids at home with the Amahs. The wives had to be got home in convoy sharing cars. The escort was a Plt Off and 15 Regt personnel. If we were stopped by rioters I was to deploy the troops to protect the dozen or so cars and occupants, and stand in front pointing my .38 pistol at " The Ringleader" and say "Halt or I Fire" three times. If the attack continued and I ordered "Open Fire" I was now standing between the rioters and 16 Regt firing Rifles or Sterling sub machine guns!!. In those days General Duties officers were required to carry out " General Duties", hence me as a 20 year old Navigator as Convoy Commander.
We successfully delivered several wives home before we got to a large hirings patch.We were then told that the riots had broken out in the patch and one of the wives, who was at home, had rung Tengah to ask if somebody could remove the head that had just come over the garden hedge. I sent one of the Landrovers and crews up Chestnut Drive to recce the situation before attempting to take the ladies home. Followed shortly thereafter by a Landrover giving a passable impression of a Formula One car on its return. The Sgt briefed me that there were "Fahsands of the F******" so I decided to take the ladies to the nearby Bukit Gombak GCI site, until it was safe to take them home. We delivered the other ladies home safely and were recalled to Tengah. I never saw any rioting but had to negotiate my way through several Police and military roadblocks, none of whom knew we were coming. That was my entire career as a soldier. It seems not a lot had changed since the " Virgin soldiers " days!