At times in the late 70s/early 80s, there was an OPREQ to fly team members of the Sultan's Special Force from Thumrait ( near their base) to the capital, using two-seat Jaguars, PDQ, while the rest of the team went by whatever was available - a BAC-111 or Herc. So they had to be potty-trained. Good sport!
They tried to reciprocate, and one of the distractions they came up with was to put volunteers through their CQB course. Visualise, if you will, a line of assorted, superannuated and hungover single-seat jocks in a line, shuffling along through a 'toytown' range, carrying live-loaded 9mm handguns and told to respond to the various pop-up targets - left, right, centre and behind......
The other distraction was an invitation to go on patrol with them, on the several occasions they were directed to perform in 'ordinary infantry' mode, and do Aggressive Patrolling of a chunk of the Jebel. The local opposition, the 'adu', usually tried something on, little realising what a hornet's nest they were stirring up. Each time a contact report was made, where one of the aircrew 'tourists' was involved, that was patched through to Thumrait Ops and every Jag and Hunter that could find an excuse went haring over there to see what was going on. Tasking? Huh?
