Corsair,
It would appear that it was the barracks.
Thank you JB for the story, it is a cracker.
It is the 14 August 1977. The story of Monaghan goes like this. I had left Middle Wallop only 2 months previous and had one month of training in Germany proir to deployment.
I was tasked with carrying out the ADS run with the mail. The route was from the Maze-Lisburn-Portadown-Armagh-Dungannon-Omagh-etc-etc.
The weather was fine with a light wind and high cloud base. I set off with the mail man and all was well. There was a premarked map with the route on. On leaving Portadown we set course for Dungannon, they stated that they had no mail therefore there was no need for us to land there.
So altered course for Omagh. On the preprinted map there was a wood marked whch was no longer there on the ground. While I was debating on this the FFILT light came on. Started to get concerned at this stage so called up Omagh and received no answer, turned towards Dungannon, called them, nothing turned back to Omagh.
Called Omagh again and an airborne pilot answered[the OC ] he asked what the problem was so I told him I had the emergency and was unsure of my exact position. He asked me to transmit for Homing(he was in a Sioux and they had the homing facility). After a couple of goes he stated that I was north of Omagh and to head South. in fact I was North of Monaghan. So I set off south and the first barracks I came across was an Irish Army barracks which I circled a few times. The Irish amry came out and blocked the square to prevent us landing, so I whipped around the front of the barracks and landed on the grass and shut down. They all came rushing around pointing guns at us like we were and invading army. A Major came forward anf said," For ****'s sake lads will you calm down".
Told him of our predicament and he took us inside to contact base. As we were a bit low on fuel I requested some. We had lunch and the potatoes were terrible. Eventually got fuel and the Major said we would have to be careful on lift as the IRA may try to shoot us down. Took off like a bat out of hell and flew to Armagh to shut down.
It was the day before the Elections in Eire and I had a mention in the Times and The Telegraph.
Next came the Board of Enquiry. I put my hand up and said it is my fault, but they were after bigger fish and blamed the Theatre QHI and the OC from Omagh. They never forgave me and refused to ever fly with me. There loss.
My Northern ireland famil was in the back of a Scout with no map.
Such is life!!!!!!!!!!