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TACEVAL stories

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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 19:39
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Odiham exercise.. hooter goes off in distance and ignored as tannoy in block doesn't work.. Here banging on door down the corridor and SWO and co asking "haven't you heard the call out? You're charged" hear him getting closer and people still answering the knock, charges all around... Comes to me... Silence on my behalf then hear him working back down the hall... Phew..

Wander into work swearing blind I was off station
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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 19:48
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Mrs W and I have been back from the honeymoon for 5 days - I can see her now, 6pm and she is putting a pan on the stove in the MQ at HSF - and the siren goes. I am permitted to use my car as I am Ground Defence Commander so don't need to wait for the bus. Mrs W is standing dumfounded, and open mouthed as I leave hurriedly. It seems in my memory that is how I found her when I got back at 2330 ish - except for the very loud " And where the heck have you been?" Then I realised - in our courting days when I was in DIOT at Cranwell and lived off base, she had only ever seen me called out by telephone. I think the siren had genuinely frightened her. Certainly put paid to a candle light supper!
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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 19:52
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A Taceval on a base recently deprived of its last flying flat iron, where, the funniest looking Nimrod was being introduced. And two Jnr Techs of the Airframe persuasion were posted to guard a "significant" building. It was around 2200 hrs and pretty dark, although the starlight gave you reasonable vision at around 20 feet. At this point I should admit that I was one of the guards, the other was a very large, very straight talking Yorkshireman who said what he thought, and loved American movies, we'll call him Fred. So we've been out there for around 2 hours and its pretty bloody cold, no contact with anywhere, and no visits from guard commander or anyone else.

We hear the sound of someone approaching, so I shout the challenge "halt, stand still", they keep coming, and now we see two officers, no NBC kit on so probably Distaff. I repeat the challenge, to no avail, they keep coming. At this point we can make out (around 20 feet away) two Squadron Leaders, one of whom was dark skinned and rather large. Seeing they were not going to stop Fred decided to take the situation in hand, he stood up from behind our sandbags, pointed his empty rifle at the pair, and announced in a very loud, Yorkshire, accent "one move and the nig**r gets it" ( just think of Guy Gibsons dog). The two stopped put their hands up and played the game from then on. They were both umpires from another unit and were impressed, so they said, with Fred's use of the vernacular. There was no complaint from either officer, I believe they were both amused. But could you get away with that now ? I doubt it.

Smudge
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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 20:01
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I remember the Jengo at Bruggen and being a Muslim on exercise when the breakfasts came round ( by which time we could have eaten a horse ) he had to wave off his Compo sausage, bacon, eggs and fried bread... Though everyone else had it instead..

One hopes things have changed and they now get a proper breakfast on exercise they can eat..



..

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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 20:53
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Another one from a Lossie TACEVAL. Two Assistant Air Trafficer's in a sangar 'guarding' the 05 end.

Come ENDEX, everyone off home for tea and medals.

15 hours later, 'Hey, has anyone seen Phil and Dave?'.

Yup, they're still out there. Talk about Japs on remote South Pacific Islands still fighting WW2.

How we laughed.

Tojo and Nanky Poo, do you frequent this site?
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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 22:51
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From the other side

I was a TACEVAL "inspector" (DI STAFF)!!

The job was very lucrative as we all qualified for ODR rather than the lesser PTR, plus Rate 1's for the duration. Consequently the slots normally went to those higher up the food chain than me.

I get a phone call from a fellow JNCO at a different RAFG station. He says he has heard I can speak French and that if I could then OC 4 Wing RAF Regt was offering me the job as one of the DI STAFF for the Part 2 TACEVAL of a Belgian Air Force station. I assured him I had a qualification in both written and spoken French.

A favourable assessment of myself and this other JNCO might be "a pair of coniving rogues".

Travelling down to Belgium the venerable (and awesome bloke) OC 4 Wing was front passenger, driven by my Sgt. Myself and the other rogue were in the back of the green Cavalier (I think) staff car. We had no hope of finding the place first time as the joining instructions used the French town names but the local maps and signage was in Flemish.

Finally we found a large fence and in time honoured fashion we turned left and drove round it in a clockwise fashion. SUCCESS, we happened upon a gate complete with sentries, sangars and weapons. It was a small affair and clearly a crash gate.

OC 4 Wing turned round, looked me directly in the eye and said "OK ss find out where the main gate is."

I wound down my window and enquired in a clear voice audible to all "Oi mate, ou est le main gate sil vous plait?"

"Sgt sort that wan*er out will you" bade the Wing Commander. My mate snorted with laughter and I said "O level grade D mate."

My exercise was awful, all the worst jobs possible.

The cash bought me a schrank though.

Last edited by sittingstress; 2nd Aug 2013 at 22:52.
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Old 2nd Aug 2013, 23:36
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Bruggen... Now all Squadrons wished to come out top....

However we had a cunning plan, as with all things Squadron wise you tended to know the opposition so sitting in a HAS we went to work...
Someone had kindly provided a nice telephone directory for all the HAS on the Station, so one would blind call a HAS elsewhere and say can Corporal XYZ go to HAS 23 to have a look at a fuel leak...
Muggins on the other end being helpful would tell you he isn't in their HAS but HAS 22 so you would call that HAS and tell him to send a Liney etc to HAS 23 to replace you and so it went on..
Eventually a Tannoy message would go out telling them to ignore calls as they were bogus, so we would then call the HAS and tell them to ignore the Tannoy as compromised etc....
Ohh and the Staish used to also get calls simply saying Coco Pops...

Ahhhh such fun..
Oddly enough the station still used to come out smelling of roses


..

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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 01:18
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At one place I was at that shall remain nameless I was both the shelter marshall and exercise comms supremo. The shelter was a couple of sheets of poly on sticks just behind a building door with a tray of Fuller's earth on the deck.

Being always struck by the surreal nature of exercises and how two sheets of poly and a tray of dust could save us I could never take it seriously.

COC 'How many men are in your shelter?'

Me '400'

COC 'There are only 60 men on your section'

Me 'I've taken in refugees from neighbouring hamlets who are in need of succour'

COC 'You can't do that'

Me 'I am the Shelter Marshall, giver of life and death'

COC 'Report to me at Endex'


Conners about '75. ORP, Pete V*** and Middy H on cockpit readiness about 0200, sheeting down with rain, me on headset underneath wing. Crew stood down after about half an hour, Pete looks at me after climbing out, thoroughly wet and pissed off and in the most heartfelt way I've ever heard from another human says slowly 'What. A. Way. To. Earn. A. F******. Crust.'
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 07:35
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In one of the crew shelters during an exercise at Kinloss in the mid-80s. Two crews in there on standby to fly later in the day. Each crew briefed to sleep in their flying kit to be ready for launch as soon as possible after the word is given.

How fun it was to sneak into the other crew's dorm and switch all the flying boots around!

On another occasion remember seeing P2 lying on a camp bed in a HAS wrapping himself in a paper chart as he was cold and trying to sleep. How we laughed when one of the lads set fire to the corner as we watched and waited!
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 07:47
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Another one from a Leeming TACEVAL.

First time ever, the WRAF had to sleep in shelters (previously, they 'admin breaked' to the WRAF block).

The small dorm in the WOC slept 60 on triple bunk beds. 58 guys trying to kip. Enter 2 of the WRAFs finest to find the only bedspaces available were on the top tiers.

"Oh" says one, "I've never been on top before".

Cue 58 blokes laughing like drains

Last edited by taxydual; 3rd Aug 2013 at 07:47.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 07:49
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TACEVAL Gutersloh, early 1980s. 230 Sqn hangar, very wet, windy morning. RAFG Sqn Ldr assessor on scene. Ongoing "inject" was a mains power cut. Huge standby generator trailer therefore running by the side of hangar, twenty metres from side door.

Shyt and crewman leave hangar by side door and notice a round, domed topped, olive green metal object lying in the grass right next to footpath by the door.

"Aha! An exercise IED", we both calmly agree.

We retreat, close the door and report back to Sqn Ops to pass on the good news. Flt Cdr sets suitable career enhancing response in motion, i.e. calls local RAF Regiment to expertly assess the threat. "Yep, it's actually a landmine!" The end of the hangar exit and path were cordoned off, offices rapidly vacated, etc. Huge disruption to preparations for Sqn deployment.

While this is going on, TACEVAL assessor reads notes and then announces quietly and slightly nervously (increased IRA threat around that period, including RAFG personnel having been shot dead):

"Er.. by the way....this isn't actually one of ours....... !"

All further local TACEVAL injects totally disrupted. More RAF Regiment appear.

About two hours later the landmine was discovered to be the top off the air filter from the standby generator. It had vibrated loose, jumped off and the wind had blown it like a frisbee to the grass by the footpath.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 11:12
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280SU, Cape Gata, Cyprus, early 70's Taceval. So, there I am, on top of the Ops Building roof at around midnight. All of a sudden, I spot 2 guys at the perimeter fence about 100m away. One gets on the others shoulders to jump inside the perimeter. I knew immediately what to do in this situation of course and cranked the handle of the field telephone next to me to report what I'd seen. Nothing - the line's dead. This was merely a diversion of course. Their mates were already inside, as I was about to find out.

I rushed over to the other side of the flat roof to where the other field telephone was, sit on the pile of surrounding sand bags and cranked the telephone handle.
"And that f***er won't work either" says the pile of sandbags I'm currently sitting on.
Time seemed to freeze at this point.

It was like a Mexican stand-off. It dawned on me at this point that I was now sat on a SAS guy (the 'invaders').
Fortunately for me, he said "don't worry mate, I'll come quietly".
I breathed a sigh of relief and took him down to the guard post at gunpoint where he was searched by the RAF Police. They took a few things off him and seemed satisfied by their search.
He was then searched by some plain-clothed guys unknown to me, who took the scar from his face (fuse-wire), a detonator from his backside and plastic explosive from his armpits. Not surprisingly, I've never forgotten that event!
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 11:16
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Kinloss - NMSU - early 80's. Call out has been ongoing for some time. Short WO is now working up to super rant mode at late comers. The way into our Fortress was via the SNCOs crew room fire door, on the airfield side. For reasons unknown this had a very high step...

There came a knock and when the door was opened there on top of the step stood one of 2 Teams finest, with his old style tin helmet on his head.

WO stood straight in front of our hero and went off on one! Barney, attempting to explain his lateness while still on the step, tilted his head forwards oblivious to the fact that his chin strap was not done up.

The helmet duly gave into gravity and in a flash the steel rim had sliced across said WOs upturned nose causing an immediate and very painful injury and the end of all ranting for several hours!

Happy daze....
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 11:23
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Neatishead Minival. Two guards patrolling the wire spot youngish and not unattractive woman in the wheat field outside the wire. "What are you doing?" asked one of the guards. "Looking for wild oats" comes the serious reply from the farmer's daughter. "Best come inside the wire" says his mate. Subsequent complaint courteously dealt with by Aunty Joan.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 11:45
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Cornish Air Force HQ...

.....'90s-ish.
OCU scratch crew "You lot are up for dinghy drill" WTF??

Get our heads down and are called at 5AM. Transport doesn't go to Newquay pool but sets off for the south coast - to Fowey in fact.
As we wait on the pier in the early morining thick mist we hear a subdued rumble of big diesels and a big Marine Craft hoves to about 200 yards off. Ferried out in the Zodiac and then set off down the channel and out to sea. Sun comes up, lovely sunny morning as we burn along the coast towards Lands End at 40 kts. Smashing full English breakfast in the sunshine.

Then emerged from his bunk the sea survival instructor from Mountbatten "Buggah"

About 20 miles west of LE we stop and we are allowed to get into the dinghy dry shod with all the goodies, solar stills,heliographs, flares etc.Boat eases away to (we thought) lurk hull down out of our sight.
WRONG!! They set of back to Plymouth at 40 kts!
I had secured the one and only live SARBE and had it tucked inside my immersion suit.
We tried out all the goodies chatted up dolphins who came to visit and eventually got bored
The Coudrose Sea Prince trundled by as we flashed our heliographs. No response.

We had imagined the scenario ; Nimrod search, drops anther dighy, calls in Seaking from Culdrose, we get winched dropped back at SM. OK let it all unfold.

Nothing happened!

Come 1800, Culdrose now shut, no Nimrod, evening wearing on.
I fetch out the SARBE which "Capt" immediately demands possession of. F*** O** Gordon.
Select the live rather than training mode. Capt objects. F*** O** Gordon.
"If I'm bobbing about here in the coming dark it's a real emergency"

Back at SM Ops, taceval umpire asks "What have you done about the crew that ditched? "EH?? WTFO"
Nimrod goes U/S. The RN (gawd bless'm) find a scratch crew who come to look for us. Find us and start winching. We hear the bang and SK departs landwards. Now what?
Stone me another SK appears and gathers up the rest of us and heads to SM.
Half way there, another VERY LOUD bang and a puff of what looks like brown smoke whips past the windows. It's a swash plate failure and loss of hydraulic oil. Limp to SM and get dumped on the first bit of airfiel after coast. No Transport. Walk all the way back to ops. No one in, all gone home, ENDEX was two hours ago.

In the bar OC Ops did apologise and buy us a beer.

An interesting day.

The Ancient Mariner
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 11:53
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Prior to springing a surprise on RAF Marham, the TACEVAL team used to stay in a little pub about 15 miles from the station where they assumed they wouldn't be known. Unfortunately for them, the landlord was the father in law of one of the Victor Captains. So we always got at least a week's notice once the booking had been made.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 13:07
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Taceval Stories

During a TACEVAL At Kinloss in the early eighties, a dog handler, whose patrol area was between the wash pan, runway 08 and Harry the Staishs house, needed to answer a call of nature and wandered over to some bushes. Imagine his surprise when 100 lbs of German Shepherd nailed an intruder hidden in the bushes.... then ..some people will pee on you and tell you its rain!

Last edited by skyguard; 3rd Aug 2013 at 13:09.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 13:17
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I was never sure whether it was true, but OC Admin used to 'own' the Aux Rock Ape gang at a certain covert Oxonian aerodrome. They were as keen as mustard and often worked in a proactive manner.

One fine night, they were on external patrol and spotted a dubious looking bunch getting into a black car after filling up at the local petrol station setting off to the north. They duly gave chase and there followed the 'Battle of Burford High Street'. Nothing would stop our gallant Rocks until they'd nabbed their quarry at gun point and after a few blanks had been pooped off....

It took all OC A's negotiating skills to resolve the matter.

The next day I was stood down late at night and was driving quietly through Black Bourton when a Land_Rover full of heavily armed cam'd up Rocks pulled out in front of me...on a public road. I explained the error of their ways to them and they admitted they'd been a bit too keen - but when I mentioned it to OC A the next day he simply groaned, put his head in his hands and asked "Oh god, what have the buggers been up to this time?".

Splendid bunch they were though...

Allegedly, on one occasion in Lincolnshire, a Vulcan mate was 'friends' with a local hotelier, who told him about a block booking which had clearly been made for the TACEVAL team. So, when they duly turned up, the good lady of the inn simply advised them that there'd been a double booking and that there was No Room At The Inn for them....
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 14:57
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Guetersloh, early 70's; TacEval team ordered evacuation of families, MT of all kinds loaded up with spouses and children, set off down autobahn to the west. On arrival at Kamener Kreutz, convoy turned round to return to station to find autobahn behind them jammed full of local residents from Guetersloh believing that the fall of the country was imminent. After that, all exercises were promulgated in local papers to avoid repeat.

Different exercise again at Guetersloh: '74ish, 2 'frightning' sqns based there (19 & 92); member of one of the sqns, strolled quietly into other sqns safe bunker with cs candle spluttering. Attacked sqns pilots out of action for requisite time, till deemed fit to fly again.

Last edited by Motleycallsign; 3rd Aug 2013 at 15:01. Reason: Sp.
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Old 3rd Aug 2013, 15:36
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Operation Maximash the evaluation of RAF Wegberg..... Ahhh
Having been "volunteered" to go play casualty I actually then volunteered subsequent years...

You all got a bit of paper giving symptoms then off to make up.. one of the guys was given a slip of paper simply telling him that he had gone mad and act it out, we all wondered how he could do that....
We were all medivaced in by Chinook and as we were wheeled in for assessment, some really fit Flt Lt Nurse leans over him to check his symptoms, at which point he reaches up grabs both her breasts, squeezes them saying "honk honk" hops off his trolley and storms off up a corridor followed by howls of laughter from everyone bar the said nurse...

Last edited by NutLoose; 3rd Aug 2013 at 18:33.
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