Rheindahlen Two
The Berlin Wall fell on 9th November 1989, causing us great anxiety because I had not yet received my posting from Cardiff and it was easy to imagine the job being downgraded rapidly. As it happened, my unstated task was to orchestrate the retreat from Germany whilst keeping the customer and the staff as contented as possible. Duly posted, we drove out with no offspring; it was like a second honeymoon, doubly good because the ex-officio MQ was in Portadown Way. This was opposite our Rheindahlen One home of all those years ago. My line manager was SASO, Tiger Tim, an extraordinary charismatic character much given to personal risk-taking and falling off or out of all manner of objects. RAF Wildenrath was soon nominated for the chop, to leave Laarbruch, Bruggen, Gutersloh and AAC Detmold. The Main Met. Office at JHQ had long been closed and Bruggen had taken over some of its role with a little built-in generous staffing. This meant that exigencies could be covered rapidly without recourse to pleading with Bracknell for help.
C Met. O had George P. as ‘Met. One’. I knew George from the long ago Gatwick days and he had made good contacts with everyone in JHQ and the support units who mattered. These included the MT WO, the Mess Manager and the Petrol Coupons Officer. George was the ultimate fixer. He agree with my way of dealing with bumpf. We got rid of pending trays, just had IN and OUT. It took a couple of months’ hard work to reach that state of grace, thereafter it served us well.
HQ Strike had taken over the SigWx task, and the numerical products were very useful, provided new staff listened to the collective wisdoms.
There was an annual AFCENT Met. Conference, hosted in turn by UK, USA, Canada, France [yes] and Germany. The recurring theme was interoperability and standardisation, a lost cause. I am told the Ladies’ Programmes were more productive.
The Gulf War was soon upon us, and we produced climate briefs. From what I subsequently learned the emphasis on how cold the nights could be, and how destructive of equipment the sandy wind would be, were not taken on board. Bruggen and Detmold were very busy and deserved a lot of praise.
German reunification October 1990 was ‘celebrated’ at a big mess event, but the German guests were already counting the cost and the celebrations were muted. The autobahnen were suddenly populated by tatty old car transporters carrying tatty old Trabbies westwards as curios, and returning east with second-hand Mercs and BMWs
We attended St Boniface Church, one of three on the station. There was a standing joke about persecution of the Christians, in that there were often Mess events the night before, and many cycled to church next morning. The German Police, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, had jurisdiction and were enthusiastically aided by the redcaps in breathalysing cyclists. It was said that cyclists over the limit could lose their driving licence.
‘Sir Wilson’ [sic] arrives.