Tezzer, were you one of the detachment that had to be pulled out of Valletta one night because there was a bit of an anti-Brit nause going, shots fired etc?
You are right, air cadet camps were based at Hal Far -
afaik the last time the old Officers' Mess there was used by British forces. I was based there for the whole summer of 1976 as Adj Air Cadet camps.
I was! As the main drag was full of protesters a bunch of the guys got around the mob and back to the bus by diverting down Straight Street!
I got my first flight in a Nimrod on that trip, plus a flight in a Gazelle. I recall that a squad of us cadets were doing a daylight navex and hitched a ride on the back of a truck full of gravel destined to be used on a runway extension (or was it harbour extension, the memory fades), a wonder we never fell off the thing. Joined up in '78 as a DE AEOp and a couple of years later ran into the guy who had been the cadet liaison officer in Malta in the Sgts mess at Kinloss; he reminded me of some other incidents from that trip... Happy days...