November 4,
Thanks for that, it reinforces my next argument with my walking pal. Meanwhile, Mrs Smudge has just emerged from the loft with this, it was taken on return from Kuwait to Bahrain (XV297) on the date shown on the photograph. I believe the original intent for the thought bubble above Garfield was "Life's a Beach". We had come out through the oil fires and it was important to get the tar off the windscreens quickly;
Interestingly, our crew had an hour on the ground in Kuwait, delivering an Armoured Rolls Royce for the embassy, because MAMS roller conveyor was broken, again, and we got rained on by the same oil clouds. Our Flight Engineer had had a very bad experience with helicopters in the Falklands (Bob, if you know him) might give you an understanding of the paranoia he had of flying in cloud near them. Our approach in to Kuwait was done using a US tactical ILS system, through the oil fire smoke. On headset, with US helicopters calling from all over the airspace he was convinced we were going to bump in to one. We didn't, and the photograph proves it. The GE t shirt I wore that day is still in my possession, and still has the black spots of oil, that Mrs Smudge failed to wash out. Anyone remember the "£yneham GE$" T shirt logo ?
Here's one I just scanned;
Obviously designed to "wind up" both the line lads and ladies, and our aircrew comrades. Note its definitely a K. I was once informed that there were an equivalent constituted crew make up at Lyneham of 120 crews. When I was a GE we had 32 GEs, a ratio of around 4:1. I had several occasions to leave a well known bar in Gander, only to arrive back there the next night with a different crew. A busy time, only interrupted by the long detachments to the Gulf. Over a six year period from my logs I averaged 276 days a year "down route". It was surely the most interesting period of my service, and will always remain so. I'm sure a few of you will remember the T shirt though.
Smudge
