Originally Posted by
Moosehunter
An old thread - and a long shot, but... you never know. I was on the MRF Det at Greenham in summer of 87. I don't remember much about it really other than being constantly exhausted or ****faced in Newbury - and of that bit I remember even less. One thing I do recall is a hot air balloon approaching the perimeter fence at the back of the Gamma Site one afternoon or evening. I'm only asking on the slim chance if anyone else was there at that time and recalls this incident?
I'm also curious as to why a licensed balloon 'pilot' would risk his/her livelihood being anywhere near probably the world's most controversial missile base at that time?
Why? because they had little choice if the wind changed direction. IIRC Senora A did a flight with them that took her over Greenham, Aldermaston and the arms dump on the M4. I had to drive over half the Southern counties to the constantly changing landing point.
I think the basic, oddly enlightened view, was that there was nothing you could see from the balloon that you couldn't see from a satellite and that altho Speztnas were clever, they had standards and drew the line at trying to insert an assault team with a balloon,