Back in the early 80's, yours truly was Orderly Corporal at RAF Linton on Ouse. The fact that I was permanant staff at RAF Topcliffe held no water, so we were Joe'd to help out the LOO JNCO's spread the load.
Saturday night, Trafalgar Night. The LoO Officers Mess was handed over to our Dark Blue brethren to celebrate some unpleasantness somewhere off Spain or whereever.
The junior course attending RNEFTS at RAF Topcliffe had, that weekend, been despatched to do 'Adventure Training' for the weekend. This consisted of loading 10 RNEFTS students into a minibus and sending them to Scotland.
At 0 early o'clock, I received a telephone call, in the Guardroom, from a hospital in Scotland, telling me that the RNEFTS student minibus had had an altercation with a ditch, and that the minibus had come off worse resulting in a number of walking wounded (minor cuts and bruises) but one casualty that the Docs were concerned about. This RNEFTS student was mentioning abdominal pain that seemed to be getting worse.
The Docs at the hospital were requesting permission to do an exploratary op to ensure the studes kebabs were where they should be and OK.
Now, trying to find a SDO or RNEFTS Topcliffe Naval Officer who (at 0130 on a Sunday morning) wasn't 'tired and emotional' was even beyond the magic powers of Corporal's, so, yours truly, gave consent for the exploratory op. (Possibly illegal, but humanitarian................)
Outcome was, the RNEFTS stude with gut ache survived the op, with his innards declared Fully Serviceable, but had / has to endure an operation scar across his (no doubt) nubile body for the past 35 years courtesy of the LoO Orderly Cpl.
For that, if you are a PPruner and recognise yourself, I humbly apologise for the pain you suffered. I also thank God for the anonymity of these Forums.
Last edited by taxydual; 3rd Sep 2018 at 23:09.
Reason: Speilling (and a surfeit of Red Wine) and an exceptional dinner.