I was Ord Cpl at Kinloss the day Thomas Hamilton made himself front page news at Dunblane primary school, not really a major issue for for us but at the time the main gate to camp was being rebuilt so the Ord Cpl was shipped out to a portacabin by the back gate on the Findhorn road. As all the TV channels were filled with the coverage all night long all I had to watch was the gate guards (not very exciting) and an aged VHS cassette of Tommy Cooper (not marginally better).
Saying that I was also Ord Cpl at the same station the night the river Ness was going to break its banks into Inverness town centre. We'd just got rid of the defaulters, packed the solitary prisoner off to bed, bade the OO good night and settled down to watch some educational movies the Ord Sgt had provided, when the phone rang. This was the OO, we'd been requested to provide manpower to fill sandbags and shore up the river defences by the civilian council. So we packaed away the entertainment and started trying to work out what we needed and how to get it. Lossie was going to provide a 3 tonner and sandbags, so we had to find the manpower to fill and lay them, but where do you find a dozen "volunteers" at midnight?
By this time the OO was back in the guardroom and we all started ringing round. The duty airman was left to watch the front desk and provide refreshments while I was given the task of getting in-flight catering to provide box meals. Once I'd roused the duty sandwich mechanic, I told him we need 20 or so box meals delivered to guard room pronto. It took a bit of convincing that yes I was serious and no it wasn't a wind up, but I think what swung it was after telling him what we needed for the third time I casually said "well if you won't help, give me the number of the catering officer". After short silence he whispered "you wouldn't dare...." but without resorting to actually phoning his boss we got out meals.
Unfortunately the night shift Nimrod line could not provide manpower to assist, the snow and ice party was called out to swell the ranks and in the middle of all this a young fresh faced (and out of breath) WRAF burst through the guard room door and announced that some one had banged on her door and told her to report to the guardroom in her combats. She was then directed to get on the bus that had just pulled up outside, along with a dozen burly airmen who had been rounded up. She was next seen on the morning news trying to carry a sandbag...
By 04:00 the fuss had died down, the OO went off to write up his report and the Ord Sgt and I tried to fill in the daily occurrence book with approximate times for what we thought was the actual sequence of events. By the time the WRAF guardroom Sgt arrived we'd more or less sorted it out, the flag was up, the prisoner had been woken (he'd slept through the whole thing) and we were ready for knocking off. When the WRAF Sgt breezed in and asked "Quiet night then?" the Ord Sgt went "Well.....let me give you the headlines first...."