Doug,
How right you are. My experience of "No lone zones" does not come from working on Albert, but as SNCO i/c VASS at Machrihanish in the early 80s. Our most important function was to carry out "loadex's" on both Nimrod and P3 MPA aircraft with "shapes" furnished from our NATO stocked ammunition storage area. In those days, if an Airframe tradesman entered the NLZ to replace a torch battery in the co pilots torch, the criteria for his escort was that he was a similarly qualified Airframe tradesman, albeit that the batteries and torch were the purview of the electrical trade group. I know from experience that on one occasion, a security policeman refused entry to the NLZ to a fellow "Snowdrop and Brain on a leash" because he had no accompanying "qualified" escort. Imagine his surprise then, having co opted the assistance of a fellow "Snowdrop" he was still denied entry because there was no associated escort for the dog !!!!! The lads with the white hats took their job seriously, and perhaps we should respect that. Maybe that explains my thinking on no lone zones, and my experience on Albert later, where, I always needed my fellow AGE to accompany me in, but the Nav could get away with a Co pilot !
interesting how it all changed.
As a follow on, I had the pleasure to serve a couple of years at Colerne, (my introduction to Albert in 1971) in my formative years. In the 12 man room I paid to enjoy, I encountered a Jnr Tech Humphries, known to all and sundry as "Black Humph". Now, no ethnic aspersions here, he worked in the tyre bay and usually turned up in the accommodation in the evening covered in crap from changing tyres every day. He was a man of Somerset, and could learn you all a thing or two about drinking cider. No other liquid refreshment was a substitute for Black Humph. Move forward 2 years, I arrived at Akronelli by VC10, and was met by none other than Black Humph. As I recall it was the Thursday schedule, he told me that I was not needed until the following Monday, and he had been delegated to welcome me ! The Square, pops soup kitchen etc etc followed, after being allocated, by Jnr Technician Humphries, accommodation in the substandard part of the base. Waking up somewhere in the square on Sunday morning, around 0400 local, skint and "non compus mentis". I got back, I turned up for work on Monday morning, and was duly threatened with a charge for failure to report for duty (Kilwhang may, or probably won't, remember) and I never forgot my introduction to an overseas tour. Now, my new best pal, Humph, didn't look like a a bloke with a great future to me, but then, I've never been that good a judge of character. Last I heard of him, he had left the RAF, married his bank managers wife (on her divorce) and become "something in the city ? ". Good luck to him. Nothing though could ever excel my next experience of flying on Albert, a story that may be too powerful for these columns. I apologise sincerely for my hogging these pages, it's just that every post by you blokes prompts a memory to me.
Smudge
