Nimrods in Malta
I was on the first crew to arrive in Luqa on 203 sqn ostensibly to replace the venerable Shacks and ironically, the first crew to depart again during the Mintoff/ Carrington withdrawal. We didn't get very far - as far as the hold at Gozo until PLE because we didn't have Dip Clearance to go anywhere. After departing very noisily over Valetta, we landed again very quietly back on 06. The Malts were shooting 12 bore at us at our Sunspot dispersal so we moved all the machines further away from the boundary fences. We eventually left on New Years Eve to Akrotiri arriving about midnight.
That started 6 months of living anywhere and everywhere and eventually Sigo-piggin-nella living in the famous holiday camp.
Character forming? Hardly.