Indeed. It will be 25 years ago tonight that I took off from KKIA just after midnight, leading 3 VC10K tankers to RV with 8 Tornados from Muharraq on their way to attack Talil.
Weather at the refuelling level was pretty dire, but we found a level which worked and released the Tornados on time. Then waited on Lemon Post towline, planning to balance out the fuel across our 3 tankers - but the tanker with all the spare fuel couldn't trail the centreline hose, so we had to make do with what we had.
Dozens of black shadows of other formations went past at deconflicted levels, then back came the Tornados, thankfully - after some post-attack AAR they went back to Muharraq whilst we headed back to KKIA. As luck would have it, both our hoses stuck out, so a flapless landing on absolute minimum fuel was the finale to our first war sortie. Pretty small beer when compared with the Tornado mates' experiences.
That was the first of 38 such sorties I did; the only threats we really faced at KKIA were the Scuds thrown in our direction and the ever-present risk of mid-air collision, given the number of jets in theatre. That and some of the Saudi drivers on the local roads!
After being scrambled from bed to support some F-14s and GR1As, I was making a cup of tea for the rest of the crew in the galley when we heard that the cease fire had been declared. So back we came via a Palermo nightstop to a flypast at Brize on March 13th.
Then back to flying some aeros in my Bulldog at ULAS a couple of days later, before some leave once I'd regained currency.
So, it all kicked off 25 years tonight. Has anything been planned either by the RAF or the meeja to commemorate the start of Gulf War One - or are they all rather embarrassed that the Middle East is still in turmoil despite all the sacrifices and events of the past 25 years?
In particular, RIP Max Collier, 27 Sqn, killed in action with Nige Elsdon the following night whilst attacking Shaibah. Max had been the nav plotter on my first Vulcan crew 14 years earlier and we'd spoken only a few days before he was killed.