The tone in Sharjah was set extremely high, in the '50s and '60s, by the TOS.
Unfortunately, it was lowered again by the crowd of rowdies who lived on the airfield waiting to supply air transportation services to the TOS, such as routine and ad hoc supply trips to TOS camps and patrols, bringing female guests from Bahrain and Aden to TOS parties, patrolling the seas to spot people smugglers/slavers for the TOS, and so on. I understood that the airfield also served as a staging post for military flights, but that was a relatively unimportant role.