Re NAAFI at Gan
It was Gan that taught me to avoid this money grabbing organisation like the plague.
The Shackletons of 205 Sqn had an aircraft and crew permanently on SAR standby at Gan until disbandment at the end of 1971. Every four weeks or so the aircraft changed over (one out from Changi, one back) and it was custom for the one from Singapore to bring a bomb bay pannier full of fresh fruit which was dispensed (at cost - since the crew paid for it) equally to all three messes on the island. A new NAAFI manager arrived sometime late 70, early 71 and pulled the 'we have right of sales' ticket, meeting the next Shack to arrive and insisting all the fresh fruit had to be distributed through his 'emporium', and also that the crew would be paid once it had been sold.
Two days later the crew noted that a; no fresh fruit had appeared in the messes, and b; individual items were for sale in the NAAFI shop at a considerable mark up, and not much was being sold.
It transpired that the new manager had offered the fruit to the messes at an equally high price, claiming 'transportation costs' had to be applied to everything he sold, and he was applying the (nominal) cost of refrigerated sea transport for the 1500lbs or so of fruit we had bought and brought out for free. Needless to say the messes did not buy, and so little was sold in the shop that the bulk rotted and was dumped. The crew was not paid and lost out and the personnel lost out - even the Staish couldn't sort it.
The nett result - no more fresh goods for Gan (although we did eventually start doing individual orders but it wasn't the same).