Happy days and miserable days! I was with 152 Sqn in Bahrain in 1959-61 and must have spent half that time detached at SHJ with a Twin Pioneer. IAL ran the airport/atc and the controllers lived in the Fort, which was a boozers paradise! An illegitimate member of the ruling family used to hang around the civil parking area and was known to mis-marshal the odd Gulf Aviation Heron! (He also had a propensity for flashing at the rare female passenger who passed through!). The runway was narrow, 50ft I seem to recall, and caught me out in later years when landing Argosies and civilian Britannia 312F's at Sharjah. My claim to fame was to land the first aircraft at Dubai International in 1960. The SHJ Airport Manager was acting Manager at DBX. Once 400 yards of tarmac were down he invited me to land and take off at "his brand new airport", which I duly did in my Twin Pioneer!