Destroyer/special forces story sounds a bit 'bloke down the pub told me'... given the difficulties of crossing the Spanish/Gib border in 1982 for everyday folk, I can't help but admire the optimism of trying to cross from Spain in a hire car, a limpet mine stuffed inconspicuously in their undies, of 4 people trying not to look latin. WW2 Buster Crabbe/Italian manned torpedo stuff would seem more likely.
US provided intel, materiel, and Haig doing the London/NY/B Aires shuttle diplomacy, and despite having (no doubt) a strong desire to retain cordial links with Argentina they came down on our side again. Support at Ascension from day 1, from the relatively small number of hermits who worked there, was excellent - April 14th we arrived, 4 of us were sent to a room in a distant block, where a very nice chap promptly gave us all some beer and we settled down to watch his extensive collection of 'Hogan's Heros' on videotape. As time went by the huge increase in UK personnel put a stop to that, the poor chap couldn't fit 4,000 people into his room and his beer probably ran out.
The only tankers I ever saw were Victors, the only ships were Brit, Korean (I think) fishermen, and a Sov intel ship... perhaps sometime in the gap between my visits a US ship pumped fuel ashore - I'd be surprised if somebody didn't turn up with the Avgas etc at some point.
I was lucky enough to be there for a brief period early on, and again at the end - the early on bit was best by far - hard to describe properly, but seeing our ships pass through was great, walking across the pan (not for an amble, there was a good reason to be there <g>) while the navy sorted the loading out was quite something - guys with backpack radios walking around providing a personalised ATC service to every helo going... there was an endless string of helo's in and out, and when it got dark you'd see the crew step out of the cab with a sleeping bag and damn near kip where they stopped. No offence to the Black Buck bombers, but I though the tankers were something else - seeing them roar off into the night (and being able to admire this with a can of beer in the hand probably had something to do with it) - you couldn't help but figure we meant business.
Of course by the end they'd shipped a SWO out, God alone knows why, and I doubtless unfairly malign the man who I am sure did a sterling job in all reality, but if the first thing he did was find (and have repainted) a flagpole I wouldn't be surprised.
Dave