ancientaviator62 wrote:
......Antigua appealed to the UK for assistance and Op Sheepskin was the result. We did not send the army we sent UK 'bobbies'.
My logbook tells me I did the first such trip on 9 April 1969 in XV 293......
I was doing an air movements tour at the time and was on the loading team for that flight. The bobbies turned up at Movements with their riot gear, respirators, shields, golf clubs and scuba gear. They thought they were flying civvie airline until we took them out to the aircraft. The Met Police Inspector in charge of the first chalk asked where his men were going to sit. "On there!" we said, pointing to the para seats down the side. The look of horror on their faces as they realised there were no trolley dollies... only a hairy-@rr$$ed AQM, was a joy to behold.
Many years later, I had taken Mrs 4ma and the stackerettes to Somerset for a holiday when I bumped into that Inspector in Minehead, to where he retired after his Met service and ran the very nice hotel that we had booked into. We chatted over (quite) a few beers about events leading up to boarding that flight and afterwards. He reckoned he had been deaf for weeks afterwards... however, I think he forgave the RAF as I didn't have to pay for a single beer and he waived the bill for the girls.