The most surreal TACEVAL I was part of was at Northolt in the late '80s. Clearly an attempt to 'get in on the act' the base decided to have a Stn Exercise utilising one of the worst 'ops rooms' I'd ever witnessed. Sat inside, no windows, if you turned the lights out you could see daylight through the myriad of holes. NBC proof it was not! The bizzare dreamlike world that was Northolt continued with the entire command chain having regular 'NAAFI breaks' over at the Officers Mess (just behind the 'COC') thus leaving the entire station 'headless'. Still, at least we had an over enthusiastic first tour baby Plod who would deal with each and every incident single handedly. Phone rings....handset snatched by said Plod.....brief discussion resulting in Fed leaping to his feet, drawing his Browning, cocking it whilst shouting 'I'll deal with this!' and then rushing from the room....
