Taceval Tales
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That last one reminds that a couple of years ago I was sitting in the office at STC. It was a perfectly normal day, when a big red fire engine pulled up at the front of the bldg and assorted chaps clambered out and into the front door. Stepping out to go to the Registry down the corridor, I found this motley crew standing in the entrance area surrounded by smoke. I looked around and then carried on the way I was going ...
"Err excuse me" says their leader "what do you see here?"
"Unless I'm much mistaken, it's a smoke generator that you've plugged into the wall," says I.
"And what are you going to do about it?" says he.
"Well under normal circumstances, I'd call the Fire Brigade," says I "But as you appear to be here already, I assume you've got it all under control!"
There was about 10 seconds of grimmacing from the assembled fire chaps, and I am sure I could hear growling, whereupon I simply said "You want me to set-off the fire alarm don't you?" Just about saved me a kicking!
Coming back to Tacevals, there was at least one occasion in the early 90s when we were all called out on a Friday morning (our day off) still pissed after a Sqn do. The boss demanded egg banjos and the chefs managed to produce them PDQ. Not sure we were safe to control, but we felt better for them, and shortly after were sent home for safety's sake! I also remember at Neatishead the patch down in Norwich (Horsham St Faith) had one of the old v. loud sirens that could be set-off from the Ops Room 15 miles away. Unfortunately, it had a tendancy to stick in the on (v. loud) position and couldn't be switched-off locally so the person in the nearest house was issued with a big axe to chop through the cable if necessary. Couldn't imagine that happening now, what would H&S say?
"Err excuse me" says their leader "what do you see here?"
"Unless I'm much mistaken, it's a smoke generator that you've plugged into the wall," says I.
"And what are you going to do about it?" says he.
"Well under normal circumstances, I'd call the Fire Brigade," says I "But as you appear to be here already, I assume you've got it all under control!"
There was about 10 seconds of grimmacing from the assembled fire chaps, and I am sure I could hear growling, whereupon I simply said "You want me to set-off the fire alarm don't you?" Just about saved me a kicking!
Coming back to Tacevals, there was at least one occasion in the early 90s when we were all called out on a Friday morning (our day off) still pissed after a Sqn do. The boss demanded egg banjos and the chefs managed to produce them PDQ. Not sure we were safe to control, but we felt better for them, and shortly after were sent home for safety's sake! I also remember at Neatishead the patch down in Norwich (Horsham St Faith) had one of the old v. loud sirens that could be set-off from the Ops Room 15 miles away. Unfortunately, it had a tendancy to stick in the on (v. loud) position and couldn't be switched-off locally so the person in the nearest house was issued with a big axe to chop through the cable if necessary. Couldn't imagine that happening now, what would H&S say?
Down the Falklands I was due to go home on the Tuesday, boss told me Sat Afternoon that I had been extended for a week as my services were needed. Sunday was still the Sqn BBQ and my leaving do. Got pisssed Sat night, tried to drink myself into oblivion Sunday. 06:00 Monday morning an exercise was called, great that was all I needed, managed to keep out of harms way untill shift change at 12:00, asked and then told that I had to tow a Chinook of the line and put it in the hangar for the other shift. Despite trying to tell them I was Pissed, all to no avail, got behind the wheel of the tractor complete with NBC suit, tin helmet and SMG and off I went, decided to remove the need to keep swapping ends with the tractor I opted to push it all the way, just as I was trying to line it up to push it through the hangar doors (the other shift had arrived and decided that my driving skills merited an audience) the SMG got tangled in the steering wheel, tin helmet kept falling into my eyes , I was also suffering from a relapse. Chinook ended up at an angle to the hangar, towing arm was at nearly right angles across the back of the cab and the tractor was also full lock in the other direction. Handbrake on threw the keys at a tower on the other shift and climbed in wagon with the words "take me home", not a word was officially said thankfully.
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Marham mid 70's - 5 am Tannoy. Guaranteed to catch me at my lowest ebb... ... A long day mending Victors then at knocking off time instead of going home I was detailed to do some guarding of a critical airfield installation. Not a problem as I was pick axe handle qualified.
It was very very dark.. and I was very very alone and very very susceptible to anything out of the ordinary.
Suddenly there was the most almighty noise.. nearly ***t myself... Thought my time had come.
Later on sources close to the bar told me it was a couple of Buccaneers... very very low and very very fast.
So if whoever was responsible for said Buccaneers happens to be reading this .. thank you very much for completely spoiling my day.
It was very very dark.. and I was very very alone and very very susceptible to anything out of the ordinary.
Suddenly there was the most almighty noise.. nearly ***t myself... Thought my time had come.
Later on sources close to the bar told me it was a couple of Buccaneers... very very low and very very fast.
So if whoever was responsible for said Buccaneers happens to be reading this .. thank you very much for completely spoiling my day.
Last edited by windriver; 27th Jan 2007 at 13:54.
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I was called in at Coningsby mid 80's from my quarter despite the section having to send MT because my right leg AND arm were in plaster after an argument with a tree whilst parachuting! On arrival at work I was tasked with reinforcing the Guard force despite the obvious protests. An RAFP Fg Off was in charge of said force and as I pointed out my obvious limitations, he said " OK I'll stand you down for the duration once I see your sick chit" 
Gutersloh (Again!) Deployed (Again!!)
Same exercise as "The Farmers Daughter/NVG":
The "porcelain" where, if you were quick, you could see the "fruits of your labours" arriving in the stream. (Near the "spectators" bridge!)
DI-staff putting out wooden blocks marked "IED", our GLO Major following him round picking them up!!
Eventually the DI-staff gets annoyed and rebukes him for ruining the exercise,
the Major replies that he is "an ATO with a tour in Ireland"!!!
"Theres more, lots more" SADLY!!
lsh
The "porcelain" where, if you were quick, you could see the "fruits of your labours" arriving in the stream. (Near the "spectators" bridge!)
DI-staff putting out wooden blocks marked "IED", our GLO Major following him round picking them up!!
Eventually the DI-staff gets annoyed and rebukes him for ruining the exercise,
the Major replies that he is "an ATO with a tour in Ireland"!!!
"Theres more, lots more" SADLY!!
lsh
Early 80's, Day one (?) of a Part 2 at a certain East England UK Air Defence Base..the wing goes flying, the weather unexpectededly goes seriously South, and the wing diverts,en masse, to the other East Anglian AD base..and sits there for several days waiting for the weather to clear. Part two completed "by proxy" whislt many beers were drunk and many songs sung .......
Nixor ut Ledo
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Early 80s when the mighty Bucc still resided in East Anglia we had a TACEVAL which was going wrong for all the right reasons. At the end of the debacle we had the usual mass de-briefing in Ops where the TacTeam went into great detail where we had all stuffed up. Then came Harry Staish's summing up and thanks to the TacTeam.
The Harry Staish was a top bloke well regarded by all and he had our best interests at heart. His summing up went along the lines of "Well, we might well have failed in significant areas but we all know that when the chips are down we can do the job ..... so we don't need to take much notice of this little glitch"
The entire room sank slowly into into their chairs and pretended we weren't there.
Lots of station exercises followed!!!
Second memorable incident:
Oh Dark Thirty and the hooter had gone off not long previously. We were setting up the Flying Eye ground defence incident control and had posted guards with pick axe handles to guard the hangar and aircraft before we dispersed over to the other side of the airfield. I noticed a bit of challenge and ignore incident in the darkness outside of the window. I went out to investigate and was confronted with the hangar door guard trying to stop a determined looking thug from advancing with his semi automatic gun. As the guard was singularly ineffective I went to grab the gun off the bloke and, to my surprise, he let go one end of it.
At that point his training kicked in, literally, (TA SAS) and I received a mind numbing crunch to my wedding tackle as his size 11 DMS boot contacted. Needless to say I dropped to the ground uttering undecipherable grunting and groaning noises.
My assailant did come to visit me in the SMC later on to apologise for his reaction! However, no lasting damage and I was back on task a few hours later - but sore!
The Harry Staish was a top bloke well regarded by all and he had our best interests at heart. His summing up went along the lines of "Well, we might well have failed in significant areas but we all know that when the chips are down we can do the job ..... so we don't need to take much notice of this little glitch"
The entire room sank slowly into into their chairs and pretended we weren't there.
Lots of station exercises followed!!!
Second memorable incident:
Oh Dark Thirty and the hooter had gone off not long previously. We were setting up the Flying Eye ground defence incident control and had posted guards with pick axe handles to guard the hangar and aircraft before we dispersed over to the other side of the airfield. I noticed a bit of challenge and ignore incident in the darkness outside of the window. I went out to investigate and was confronted with the hangar door guard trying to stop a determined looking thug from advancing with his semi automatic gun. As the guard was singularly ineffective I went to grab the gun off the bloke and, to my surprise, he let go one end of it.
At that point his training kicked in, literally, (TA SAS) and I received a mind numbing crunch to my wedding tackle as his size 11 DMS boot contacted. Needless to say I dropped to the ground uttering undecipherable grunting and groaning noises.
My assailant did come to visit me in the SMC later on to apologise for his reaction! However, no lasting damage and I was back on task a few hours later - but sore!
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Slight thread creep here but If the staish you are referring to went by the initials "MS" then I totally agree - top bloke. I was holding on 208 as the lowest form of life (Acting Pilot Officer) and got a trip in one of the T Bird Hunters with the Staish - and threw up all over him - twice! He was a total gent about it all. Even arranged to meet me in the OM bar later for a beer - after I had cleaned up the cockpit of course!
Oh to work for a guy like that today!
Oh to work for a guy like that today!
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At that point his training kicked in, literally, (TA SAS) and I received a mind numbing crunch to my wedding tackle as his size 11 DMS boot contacted.
Where to start - so many tales where it went wrong for us, but much more amusing as aggressor or s
g other peoples:
Firstly Coningsby mid 70's: Sunny Friday Afternoon - The Phantom wing had just launched the survival scramble and got almost 100% airborne, endex is called and we (AEW Shack with a few F4 'observers' on board to watch it all happen on radar) get back into circuit first with quick run in and break. Unfortunately the self castoring tailwheel doesn't, and first we know is when tailwheel lets go on landing, calls of 'Fire' from the tower and we come to a stop in the middle of (Coningsby's only) runway. Now the fun really starts; the rest of East Anglia appears to have gone home, and the only place for the jets to go is Leeming (a Master Diversion for those that remember when we had enough airfields), which, despite a few fuel priorities they all make. Now part 2 of the problem starts. It is the night of a major Dining In night at Coningsby - lots of VIPs, Senior Officers and WW2 (and possibly WW1) veterans, with the aircrew some 3 hours away by road. MT now rises to the occasion, and a couple of very old MT coaches (the ones that slowed down to 5mph up hill, and filled up with diesel fumes down hill) were provided to bring goon suit clad crews + copious liquid refreshment back. By the time some very pissed - and pissed off - crews get back to Coningsby a very unpopular Shack crew have gone to ground in local village pub, where we stayed until our very professional groundcrew, who had also driven down from Lossie, quickly changed the t/wheel allowing us to get out of there on Saturday before most of the F4 crews recovered. However, we didn't go back for some time.
Second - Marham mid 80's, now with a Chinook. Middle of the night, having picked up a load of paras from Aldershot, all dressed in soviet kit and carrying AK's. We come in lights out on NVG, and drop them in close to the HAS's where they start to create total havoc (those that were on the crew bus going for their centralised messing meal might care to comment). Meanwhile 2 x RAFP have been attracted by the noise the Chinnie has made and start to walk across towards where we had landed together with their very ferocious looking guard dogs. Unfortunately we transition over the top of them, and as we pass crewman chucks a couple of thunderflashes out the door. Dogs immediately take off for pastures new - I was told it was nearly 24 hours before they reappeared.
More will follow
g other peoples:Firstly Coningsby mid 70's: Sunny Friday Afternoon - The Phantom wing had just launched the survival scramble and got almost 100% airborne, endex is called and we (AEW Shack with a few F4 'observers' on board to watch it all happen on radar) get back into circuit first with quick run in and break. Unfortunately the self castoring tailwheel doesn't, and first we know is when tailwheel lets go on landing, calls of 'Fire' from the tower and we come to a stop in the middle of (Coningsby's only) runway. Now the fun really starts; the rest of East Anglia appears to have gone home, and the only place for the jets to go is Leeming (a Master Diversion for those that remember when we had enough airfields), which, despite a few fuel priorities they all make. Now part 2 of the problem starts. It is the night of a major Dining In night at Coningsby - lots of VIPs, Senior Officers and WW2 (and possibly WW1) veterans, with the aircrew some 3 hours away by road. MT now rises to the occasion, and a couple of very old MT coaches (the ones that slowed down to 5mph up hill, and filled up with diesel fumes down hill) were provided to bring goon suit clad crews + copious liquid refreshment back. By the time some very pissed - and pissed off - crews get back to Coningsby a very unpopular Shack crew have gone to ground in local village pub, where we stayed until our very professional groundcrew, who had also driven down from Lossie, quickly changed the t/wheel allowing us to get out of there on Saturday before most of the F4 crews recovered. However, we didn't go back for some time.
Second - Marham mid 80's, now with a Chinook. Middle of the night, having picked up a load of paras from Aldershot, all dressed in soviet kit and carrying AK's. We come in lights out on NVG, and drop them in close to the HAS's where they start to create total havoc (those that were on the crew bus going for their centralised messing meal might care to comment). Meanwhile 2 x RAFP have been attracted by the noise the Chinnie has made and start to walk across towards where we had landed together with their very ferocious looking guard dogs. Unfortunately we transition over the top of them, and as we pass crewman chucks a couple of thunderflashes out the door. Dogs immediately take off for pastures new - I was told it was nearly 24 hours before they reappeared.
More will follow
Avoid imitations
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Was once tasked to fly a group of "enemy" (our Sqn Rockapes) into Bruggen's TACEVAL by Puma. We used some obscure mission number callsign to contact ATC to check for circuit traffic, using the pretext that we were in transit and wanted to cross the MATZ panhandle, heading for the South. We then went "on route" and dropped down to operational height before coming in over the airfield perimeter at well below fifty feet. We flew straight to the Commcen, quickstopped over the middle of the flat roof, disgorging the Rocks. The two machine gun positions were well cammed, so much so that they couldn't lift the guns around to face inwards.
The Rocks took out both positions very quickly. A nice bonus for them was that some helpful person inside the Commcen opened the roof door to see what all the noise was about........ so the Rocks ran in and took out the whole lot.
We were supposed to then stop for a refuel but we decided to go to Laarbruch instead, the natives seemed a bit more friendly......
The Rocks took out both positions very quickly. A nice bonus for them was that some helpful person inside the Commcen opened the roof door to see what all the noise was about........ so the Rocks ran in and took out the whole lot.
We were supposed to then stop for a refuel but we decided to go to Laarbruch instead, the natives seemed a bit more friendly......
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@ an Airfield in the South of England...
Group of 8 sitting watching TV, in walks a member of the distaff....
flash bang outside the window, walks up to an Airman points to the remaining seven and informs him they are seriously injured and asks the Airman who is by now missing his favourite soap opera on TV what are you going to do?
Quite calmly the Airman walks over picks up his rifle, cocks it and proceeds to shoot the remaining seven, then returns to sit down having made his weapon safe and carries on watching his soap..............
Asked what the hell does he think he is doing, he calmly replies, they are seriously wounded as pointed out, chances are they will never survive and if they do they will take up valuable resources looking after them, therefore he has exercised some logic and has rectified that predicament!
Group of 8 sitting watching TV, in walks a member of the distaff....
flash bang outside the window, walks up to an Airman points to the remaining seven and informs him they are seriously injured and asks the Airman who is by now missing his favourite soap opera on TV what are you going to do?
Quite calmly the Airman walks over picks up his rifle, cocks it and proceeds to shoot the remaining seven, then returns to sit down having made his weapon safe and carries on watching his soap..............
Asked what the hell does he think he is doing, he calmly replies, they are seriously wounded as pointed out, chances are they will never survive and if they do they will take up valuable resources looking after them, therefore he has exercised some logic and has rectified that predicament!
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Waddo Late 70's
I will need some help on this one but, at the time it was a classic. 4x Vulcan B2 cocked and at 15 min readiness sitting on the ORP.The rest of the ac (extra 25+ ac) are similarly at readiness but, disispersed around the airfield prior to the expected "elephant walk through". It then becomes a bit cloudy in my memory but, what I seem to remember was that we had a " This is the bomber controller for Bomblists Charlie, Delta etc, etc RS 02, I authenticate etc,etc." This was followed by " This is the bomber controller for bomblist Charlie, scramble I authenticate Blah, Blah etc, etc" Lester Ja****n, in finger one on the ORP, then authenticates back to Ops and is, ostensibly, cleared to go on the real mission (getting more difficult to remember what really happened next). This wasn't what "Fingers" Macey really wanted at all and so either he or OC Ops jumped in their waggon and hared across the grass and plonked himself in front of Lesters jet which, by this time was at about 60%, lined up and ready to go! Lot's of pointing and himself and mouthing "It's me, don't go" eventually had the desired effect and the launch was aborted. Talk about Dr Strangelove; please correct/ammend where necessary.
3P
3P
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
3putt, I wasn't there but we had a similar Charlie Uniform at ISK at that time.
Exactly the same situation except this time the airfield is covered in Nimrods. We are in a non-flyer parked in the wash bay and nose in to the wire.
OC Girlies orders a tug for a push back and in the process we get the 'scramble' order. Everything rushes into sharp focus and sqn cmdr sees red. We get out, lined up on the apron, start engines and go like b*gg*ry, down the taxiway, onto the runway, and go. Everyone followed in turn.
Apart from the fact we were in a non-flyer, it was supposed to be a taxi-scramble and return to dispersal where we would sit for 3 hours as the fallout swept the airfield.
Instead there were 15 plus Nimrods all in their war hold areas in the ***** *** burning up Betty's gravy and eating her nutty.
It all fits.
Exactly the same situation except this time the airfield is covered in Nimrods. We are in a non-flyer parked in the wash bay and nose in to the wire.
OC Girlies orders a tug for a push back and in the process we get the 'scramble' order. Everything rushes into sharp focus and sqn cmdr sees red. We get out, lined up on the apron, start engines and go like b*gg*ry, down the taxiway, onto the runway, and go. Everyone followed in turn.
Apart from the fact we were in a non-flyer, it was supposed to be a taxi-scramble and return to dispersal where we would sit for 3 hours as the fallout swept the airfield.
Instead there were 15 plus Nimrods all in their war hold areas in the ***** *** burning up Betty's gravy and eating her nutty.
It all fits.
The last Taceval I recall being particularly anal....apart from the flying, of course. All the ground play was as tedious as ever - the usual flapping bits of ripped black polythene and old blankets masquerading as blackout etc..
The exercise concluded with the usual NBC phase. Large numbers of sqn personnel were bussed across to the old Rapier hangar at the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome. Where we sat around for about an hour in full IPE. For what conceivable purpose, I cannot imagine. Pure blunt embuggerance. Being aircrew, however, we'd spotted a rolled up carpet on top of a set of lockers which we unrolled and sat on, rather than having to sit on the cold concrete hangar floor...
Eventually one highly pi$$ed off engineering ChTech could stand it no longer. Off with his respirator - which he punted into a far corner of the hangar with some feeling. Some junior DiStaff member set off to remonstrate with him - until stopped by a rather more grown up DiStaff bod who advised him not to bother unless he fancied probably the same thing happening to him!
Some exercise silliness was pure theatre and highly amusing - but ask the ex-RAFG guys of the late 70s what it was like during a 'Taceval Twitch'. Paranoid Stn Cdrs banning people from going more than a few miles from base and enforcing leave embargoes for weeks on end. If they didn't get 'Ones', they wouldn't get promoted.........
At least in the V-farce we didn't have such embuggerance and were merely required to leave 'recall' phone numbers with Ops if we were away on leave or whatever when a Part One was called. Happened to me once when I was on holiday at home in Menorca. I'm told that the Sqn Ops bod picked up the phone and dialled..... "Teesside Grain Company, can I help you?" came the reply. It seemed that the ancient pre dial-a-mate phone system couldn't cope with overseas calls! OC35 thought it highly amusing, I gather - but they bull$hitted the Taceval people into thinking that I'd been successfully contacted.
The exercise concluded with the usual NBC phase. Large numbers of sqn personnel were bussed across to the old Rapier hangar at the Covert Oxonian Aerodrome. Where we sat around for about an hour in full IPE. For what conceivable purpose, I cannot imagine. Pure blunt embuggerance. Being aircrew, however, we'd spotted a rolled up carpet on top of a set of lockers which we unrolled and sat on, rather than having to sit on the cold concrete hangar floor...
Eventually one highly pi$$ed off engineering ChTech could stand it no longer. Off with his respirator - which he punted into a far corner of the hangar with some feeling. Some junior DiStaff member set off to remonstrate with him - until stopped by a rather more grown up DiStaff bod who advised him not to bother unless he fancied probably the same thing happening to him!
Some exercise silliness was pure theatre and highly amusing - but ask the ex-RAFG guys of the late 70s what it was like during a 'Taceval Twitch'. Paranoid Stn Cdrs banning people from going more than a few miles from base and enforcing leave embargoes for weeks on end. If they didn't get 'Ones', they wouldn't get promoted.........
At least in the V-farce we didn't have such embuggerance and were merely required to leave 'recall' phone numbers with Ops if we were away on leave or whatever when a Part One was called. Happened to me once when I was on holiday at home in Menorca. I'm told that the Sqn Ops bod picked up the phone and dialled..... "Teesside Grain Company, can I help you?" came the reply. It seemed that the ancient pre dial-a-mate phone system couldn't cope with overseas calls! OC35 thought it highly amusing, I gather - but they bull$hitted the Taceval people into thinking that I'd been successfully contacted.
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All the ground play was as tedious as ever - the usual flapping bits of ripped black polythene and old blankets masquerading as blackout etc..
From what I can recall, there was no difference between an airfield with lots of well lit hangars, street lights, offices etc and an airfield with no lights whatever. They both looked bright green at the hangars with a black pool on the airfield. Anyway, with radar offsets we probably wouldn't look at the airfield anyway.
As for a Kennel, Kitchen or Kelt they wouldn't even look.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
1975, Coltishall is on Taceval, Neatishead is doing a SIMEX (simulated exercise). The Conex (previous title for the MC) at Neatishead was an old Irish man called Paddy McGurk.
A shack checks in with the Fighter Marshall and asks to speak to the Conex, they then explain that they are simulating a defector for the Taceval and could we tell Coltishall that we had a defecting Bear bomber and had been ordered to direct him to land at Colt.
Paddy phones Colt and explains about the defecting Bear. Just as a cross-check, Colt asks Paddy to confirm if this is Exercise or Live. It is at this stage the confusion sets in.....
Paddy, since we are in the middle of a SIMEX, intends to clarify that it is a real, live, aircraft, not a paper inject, and states that it is Live. Colt asks for confirmation which is given.
At Colt, where the question had been aimed at clarifying if this was Exercise (Taceval) or Live (a real Bear), panic now ensues. The Taceval is suspended, a frantic rush to assemble a live armed guard force is made and everyone rushes around with their heads on fire. They then wait expectantly beside the runway - and the Shack comes over the fence and lands.
Mind you, they did have red stars stuck on their cap badges and cotton wool stuck around the toes of their boots.
It certainly made for a few interesting telephone calls and a good happy hour....
A shack checks in with the Fighter Marshall and asks to speak to the Conex, they then explain that they are simulating a defector for the Taceval and could we tell Coltishall that we had a defecting Bear bomber and had been ordered to direct him to land at Colt.
Paddy phones Colt and explains about the defecting Bear. Just as a cross-check, Colt asks Paddy to confirm if this is Exercise or Live. It is at this stage the confusion sets in.....
Paddy, since we are in the middle of a SIMEX, intends to clarify that it is a real, live, aircraft, not a paper inject, and states that it is Live. Colt asks for confirmation which is given.
At Colt, where the question had been aimed at clarifying if this was Exercise (Taceval) or Live (a real Bear), panic now ensues. The Taceval is suspended, a frantic rush to assemble a live armed guard force is made and everyone rushes around with their heads on fire. They then wait expectantly beside the runway - and the Shack comes over the fence and lands.
Mind you, they did have red stars stuck on their cap badges and cotton wool stuck around the toes of their boots.
It certainly made for a few interesting telephone calls and a good happy hour....
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Ah yes, the live/sim fiascos.
In Cyprus the staish, Air Cdre Stacey, was always a couple of jumps ahead of the game.
As the station normally had live armed guards he could see a potential for disaster if some wepons were live and some were not. His soultion was to order live ammunition for all> This was in the days before we had honed the make safe procedures.
Brilliant exercise, hardly any intruder play.
In Cyprus the staish, Air Cdre Stacey, was always a couple of jumps ahead of the game.
As the station normally had live armed guards he could see a potential for disaster if some wepons were live and some were not. His soultion was to order live ammunition for all> This was in the days before we had honed the make safe procedures.
Brilliant exercise, hardly any intruder play.
Avoid imitations
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They briefly toyed with the idea of including NI in TACEVAL in the 80s. Not a good idea to go lurking around when all the guards are live armed and looking for some target practice.
An ex-colleague of mine saw someone pointing a handgun at him in the dark as he drove round the peri track at Aldergrove. He accelerated to top speed, squealed to a halt outside the guard post and called the boys out.
The RAF policeman holding the speed gun on the peri track didn't half get a nasty shock.
Yes, he did know it was a policeman all the time
.
An ex-colleague of mine saw someone pointing a handgun at him in the dark as he drove round the peri track at Aldergrove. He accelerated to top speed, squealed to a halt outside the guard post and called the boys out.
The RAF policeman holding the speed gun on the peri track didn't half get a nasty shock.
Yes, he did know it was a policeman all the time
.