Originally Posted by
ian16th
Service dates, 1952-65, never set foot in 2 TAF or RAFG. But I'm enjoying this thread
Service dates 1959-73, never posted anywhere in Europe (Middle East & Near East only) but in December 1968 as NCO i/c 604 FAC I did participate in a 3 week exercise with 24 (Air Portable) Brigade which involved our tiny section - 1 FltLt (Peter Maillard), 1 Cpl (me), 1 SAC (Jim Bushell) - flying with our Land Rover & trailer to RDAF Skrydstrup then driving as part of a huge convoy heading south and ending up in an exercise rather close to the border with East Germany. We survivors then formed another convoy, drove northwards to RDAF Skrydstrup and flew back to the UK. One vivid memory is of a phase of the exercise which involved getting very wet & muddy in trenches with the infantry and seeing AOC RAF Germany & his ADC decked out in their Number 1 Home Dress with greatcoat & shiny shoes tip-toeing very, very carefully along slippery duckboards in the trenches to see what the troops & the RAF contingent were up to. (I'd love to have listened to the subsequent one-sided conversation between the AOC and his ADC about the dress requirements for that visit!)
In the hot summer of 1969 our section plus a squadron of Hunters (111 sqn?) went back to RDAF Skrydstrup and won the live-firing FAC phase of "
Bullseye 69" beating the Americans, Germans, Dutch & Italians.