Time does indeed march on.
I remember 84 squadron in Khormaksar, Aden, in 1967 but they were flying the Beverley then. The venerable Wessex was the workhorse of 78 squadron in that last year of, among other things, taxi-cabbing Mad Mitch and his "Arabian Knights" around the peninsula.
That was one tough aircraft which rarely, if ever, let you down.
Tommy Hooper was boss-cocky then and a better man you'd be hard-pushed to find. His jockeys were, almost without exception, the best guys in the RAF for the job. A whole lot of people owe a whole lot to these men. They were good!
Sad to see the end of such a memorable machine.