Just remembered another little gem of RAFP intelligence, Maple, formally bachelor of this parish was off to get married. His beautiful bride was a Dubliner and they were due to tie the knot in that fair city.
Maple, being a responsible chap had spoken to the DV man and had cleared his trip through the Mil attaché. All looked rosy. Then came a call from plod
“You’re going to Ireland, why haven’t you been in for the Aldergrove brief?”
“Because I’m not going to Belfast, I’m flying into Dublin”
“But that’s in the Republic!”
Stunned by el puerco’s grasp of geography I admitted that yes, Dublin was in the ROI to the best of my knowledge.
“Well you’ve still got to have the Aldergrove brief”
So with much swearing and a lack of good grace I commence the 36 mile trip to receive the said brief. Utterly pointless as expected, no relevance to my case and presumably aimed at a squaddie target audience with a mental age of about 6. Bear in mind that Belfast is a long way from Dublin with a totally different security problem and in another country
The RAF police also gave me a little ‘welcome to Aldergrove’ booklet too
And why? Because rules are rules………
So why not make those going to Berlin sit through the Amsterdam brief? It’s about as relevant.
Still, at least one of the duty coppers had the good grace to say the whole bloody thing was a farce as he’d just finished a tour in Bishops Court and it was all out of date anyway