An interesting discussion here.
Here's an example of what it was like "back in the day".
I got the GSM with South Arabia clasp for service in Aden. The criteria at the time were 30 days for ORs and 24 hours for officers. There were lots of rumours regarding Ruperts swanning in and out of theatre on short visits just to get the medal.
Conditions became progressively more arduous as time went on. I noted in earlier posts people talking about working 12 hour shifts. Luxury! (to quote Monty Python). I was a radio technician, Royal Signals. A nice straightforward job, starting work at 07:00 and finishing at 14:00. The problem was, I was at the bottom of the totem pole so had to fit in stints as duty tech, camp guard duties and, uniquely to my regiment, officers mess guard. (Our officers were the only ones on camp who chose to live in a mess outside the main camp and we had to make sure they could "sleep safely in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf" (thanks George Orwell). So I would have to work a normal shift, get changed, get armed and do these extra duties immediately after finishing work. The camp guard duties would go on until 08:00 as we had to switch from regular guarding to screening the hordes of local civilian employees coming to work on the camp. A horrible job, especially when the magic 2.5% number came up and Abdul was selected for a full search, including up the bum! Once the guard duties had been completed, it was back to the billet, shower & change, get breakfast and off to work for a normal shift. Knackering! Due to the limited number of people eligible for these duties, I suppose the work days averaged out to about 16 hours per day. There was one rough period when the local nastiness was at its height. I volunteered for an IS platoon, along with a number of colleagues from my workshop. We ended up doing 30 days in uniform, including sleeping in full kit, including boots and cuddling your rifle! Sleeping with our kit and rifle doesn't lead to a restful night. At the end of the 30 days, we were all like a collection of zombies.
I remember well the night I had been on a long spell. While walking around the camp inside perimeter at around 03:00 with a partner, we came to a place where we had to step gingerly over a barbed wire roll. As I was about to cross it, I asked my oppo to keep an eye on "that bastard over there". He asked who I was talking about and I thought he was mental as he claimed he didn't see anybody. I could quite clearly see someone lurking in the shadows on the opposite side of the road that ran past our camp fence. There was no "that bastard over there". I was so tired I was hallucinating. I remember one night an infantry man came on the radio, reporting a suspicious looking dhow passing in front of him. There was no dhow. In fact, there was no water for it to sail on anywhere near his position. He too had had too many long hours, constantly on duty.
For a while, I was seconded to Botswana as we were having a little difficulty with Ian Smith. As we were only 2 technicians on the detachment, we had to do 24 hour duties on alternate days. So, a regular 8 hour working day, interspersed with the 24 hour duty meant an average of 16 hour days.
Having said all that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time out there. As a 19 year old, you are invincible and could take anything the Army or the Arabs threw at you!
And I eventually got my GSM in the post 5 years later, after I had left the mob!
As I parade at the Cenotaph every year with the Aden Veterans Organisation, we all stand and marvel at the collection of metal on the chests of the younger generation parading alongside us. I think nobody begrudges the lads getting medals but I have to admit there are occasional remarks about "getting like the Yanks".
Re Op Allowance: I suppose that must be the equivalent of the Local Overseas Allowance we used to receive. I remember it was 21 shillings per day. It used to make us laugh as the idea of LOA was to balance the cost of living abroad compared to the cost of living back in the UK. Aden, being a duty free port, was possibly the cheapest place to live anywhere! As my basic wage then was £13 per week, the addition of LOA was a huge bonus.
During WW2, my Dad was a naval signalman and he had a short tour in Malta during which he dropped himself in it big time. Signals were always repeated and there were so many of them, it was common practice to spike them and after a few hours, they would throw away half of the messages on the spike as they knew it was going to be repeated. He passed on one signal, which had been repeated, sending a fleet, possibly Force H as it included KG V, to sea. The signal cancelling it came later and my Dad was charged with costing the Admiralty something like £500,000 for the 12 hours the fleet was at sea. His D.O. argued on his behalf that conditions were so bad, Dad was virtually dead on his feet. Off duty meant sleeping in hinged pull down bunks that were let into the walls of the famous tunnels. As the tunnels were also main thoroughfares for naval personnel tramping back and forth, people sleeping in these conditions were essentially getting no sleep at all, giving them a virtual 24 hour day.
Dad got off with it and better off duty arrangements were put in place to make sure it didn't happen again.