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RAF KHORMAKSAR

Old 9th Nov 2017, 12:22
  #621 (permalink)  
 
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Originally Posted by Danny42C
Nutloose (#622},

Chacun à son goût , Nutty !
Vive la difference !
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 13:48
  #622 (permalink)  
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You all missed my point. I never said the SAS were not there but that the term Special Forces did not exist outside the SAS or SBS. Only once the veil was lifted was the term SF bandied around and of course it covered rather more than the two I mentioned.

My SinL, after a particular tour in London was presented with a framed assemblage of badges, more than I knew of.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 17:00
  #623 (permalink)  
 
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Re JAGS, they were not shorthand trained (or the ones I came across werent) and so the whole procedure went at a snail's pace as the JAG took down all the evidence longhand. Why the RAF didn't obtain the services of a court shorthand writer I don't know, but it certainly dragged things out.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 17:31
  #624 (permalink)  
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TTN, IIRC the RAF had shorthand writers but I also think the trade was abolished in the 1990s purge of trades.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 19:33
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Circa 1967, in civilian life, I lived near Hereford and nextdoor to a SAS guy.

He was very cautious with us until he discovered that I was Ex-RAF and that my wife had been in Cyprus with me. We then got on very well, but he never discussed his work.

Most of the time, his wife didn't know where he was.

He would be off 'on duty' for weeks, and return very tanned in the UK mid winter.

Never heard of the term special forces, until the Iranian Embassy event.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 20:16
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Ian, quite. My friend only yesterday mentioned Aden ex-Malaysia but no details. Of Iraq he said only he had been there and his cover story but not what else he did.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 20:36
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Pink Panther.

Ref ICM and his comment on off loading the Pink Panther, I was a Nav on 21 Sqn Twin Pins, 66-67 and remember being called out when on standby crew one sunny afternoon to go to a strip east of Beihan in the bottom end of the Rub al Khali. Neither the pilot nor I had been there before, and the topo maps for that area were big white sheets with black lines for the wadis and hills/escarpments. Payload was a pack of freight no pax. Off we went got past the detailed topo area and into the less familiar areas. We got to the area where the strip was located and we could see more that one in a smallish area, the reason being that the oil boys would have been doing some exploration work, and marked out landing strips with the usual white stones. Pilot and I both agreed on the actual target strip so we went in. No reception committee of any sort. Sat with engines idling for a bit to see if anyone showed, but no, so I went down the back and cleared the load and hauled the contents up a dune. Contents several boxes and two Land Rover wheels. Got airborne and headed back to Ksar, no trouble finding that! Checked in with Ops on the way back and they said job done, consignment received and many thanks from the recipient. So yes they were out and about somewhere but obviously didn't want to show themselves until they had confirmed the all clear.
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Old 9th Nov 2017, 23:55
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TTN, IIRC the RAF had shorthand writers but I also think the trade was abolished in the 1990s purge of trades.
Yes it was in the seventies that they formed, I remember because the Sgt Admin on 240 OCU applied for it and was posted onto what I believe was one of the first courses. I asked why and he told me it was a well paid job out of RAF life and he was planning ahead.
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 14:18
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Originally Posted by JENKINS
Similar experience to tightb with regard to the Hereford people. Some years later, and in a different country, told to take my 'Roller Skate' to a certain point in the desert, land, and I would be met. Response to my statement that there was not a strip at that location was that I should find a suitable spot in the vicinity.

That being achieved, I waited. Desert silence is very loud. Soon, dust from the West, that being the direction in which lay the 'bad guys.' Walking stick and pistol, not much use. The dust turned out to be a 'Pink Panther.' Passenger accepted, Land Rover headed West, and I went South.

Easy really. Passenger next seen on a course at secret Welsh airfield some years later.
Resupplying the khaki beret boys in southern Oman circa 1960. It always felt like a minor miracle when we both arrived at the same place at the same time!
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 16:46
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Originally Posted by brakedwell
Discharging in the bar!
I was enjoying a cool KEO in the Nicosia OM bar in 1958 when the station MO shot his little toe off, but they didn't court martial him! We had all been issued with Smith and Wesson .38 revolvers and five rounds of ammunition, but due to the numbers involved there were no holsters and belts available. We either stuck our weapons down the front of our trousers like a bunch of pirates or shoved them in a trouser pocket. However SSO's did say bullets had to removed when on the station. The MO didn't and was fingering the revolver in his trouser pocket when he accidentally pulled the trigger. There was a hell of a bang and half of 54F Squadron wet their knickers, according to us truckers!
Every Met. man [Brit] posted in during the EOKA thing was also thus issued. I arrived on 1st April 1961 [Yes, really] and was the first NOT to be lumbered. The authorities knew a thing or two.
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 16:56
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I think I might have a photograph somewhere of a pink Land Rover going down Maalla Straight. There was a story going around that some squaddies, who were ignorant as to who the occupants were and why they painted their vehicles pink, suggested to the occupants that they were a bit "girly". That was a big mistake.
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Old 10th Nov 2017, 22:09
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May I remind you that the 1st Royal Tank Regiment at Little Aden had quite a few pink painted vehicles including Land Rovers, Ferrets, Bedfords and Centurion tanks! Mercifully the Regimental Air Troop Siouxs were exempt from such frivolity. They retained the European theatre brown and green camo and bore the legend ARMY on both of the fuel tanks. When they were handed over to the Royal Marines all that was necessary for them to do was to paint out the A and Y.
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Old 12th Nov 2017, 14:45
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Smile

Sorry if my posts annoyed you guys. I was, and still am, surprised at how so many of you considered that it worked as a simple drama even. Truthfully the females were nice to look at, and also, like "Death in Paradise", the South African heat was welcome as our winter approaches.
Also, thank you for the posters who did append research links.
Portrayed action featuring Khormaksar within the programme was pretty minimal. Surely the troop of arriving Christmas turkeys should really have heralded "Spring time with Hitler", or some such Monty Python nonsense. Dear God that it actually did happen!
At least it has enabled me to contact an old billet mate from those years, and to sort through the ancient photographs.
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Old 12th Nov 2017, 19:51
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DA, I think it was entertainment. The turkey bit served to frame the period. The BP Club did the same for ex-Pat social life. Lots of other things could have featured but didn't: the sheer isolation from UK with newspapers 3-4 days late and in airmail paper; the rarity of fresh fruit/
; sweat.
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Old 12th Nov 2017, 22:27
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Originally Posted by DavidAston
Sorry if my posts annoyed you guys. I was, and still am, surprised at how so many of you considered that it worked as a simple drama even. Truthfully the females were nice to look at, and also, like "Death in Paradise", the South African heat was welcome as our winter approaches.
Also, thank you for the posters who did append research links.
Portrayed action featuring Khormaksar within the programme was pretty minimal. Surely the troop of arriving Christmas turkeys should really have heralded "Spring time with Hitler", or some such Monty Python nonsense. Dear God that it actually did happen!
At least it has enabled me to contact an old billet mate from those years, and to sort through the ancient photographs.
We were fortunate on 105. A Nairobi trip usually came up at least once a month and we made full use of Kenya Cold and the Nairobi Market. I remember fillet steak was five Kenya shillings a pound, but I can’t remember bringing any turkeys back to Aden. The sergeants mess at Masirah sold crayfish tails. Sixpence each if I remember correctly. Fresh prawns from Bahrain were also good value and it was possible to buy them on the weekly passenger schedule which flew directly to Bahrain (5 hours each way) and back with a two hour turn round, which was enough time to dispatch a tame taxi driver to the fish market in Manama.
Unfortunately the prawns had to be boiled in the hot cup during the return flight or they would go off. Some passengers were not impressed by the smell.
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Old 13th Nov 2017, 09:52
  #636 (permalink)  
 
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Nairobi once a month ?, you had it easy we were doing it weekly, K/Sar - Perim - Hargeisha - Mogadishu (occasionally up to Addis Abbaba & Khartoum) Nairobi (Embakasi) - Mombassa - Dar Es Salaam to Salisbury with sometimes Matsapa then return picking up the Kenya Cold on way back to K/Sar (we were travelling ground crew with allocated airframes XP439 - mine), couple of days off then the Bahrain run, Ryan, Salalah, Sharjah, Masirah into Bahrain with the odd trip up to Shiraz. that was from Squadron start up in 62 right through to my leaving in 64, made good use of the airframes, for a break we sometimes did the Ataq, Beihan, Dhala etc runs, them's was the days when we had an Empire to keep going.
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Old 13th Nov 2017, 10:10
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Nairobi once or twice a month were the shopping trips. Mombasa day return leave flights twice a week from 1965 became a pain. Don't worry zetec2 we were kept fully occupied from 1964 with up country supply drops, gulf Parachute Regiment exercises, RSM's, Bahrains, Matsapas and UK ferry flights.
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Old 13th Nov 2017, 10:30
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Apologies wasn't decrying your efforts but we seemed to be living in the aircraft, when doing freighters we did actually take camp beds and blankets (part of the spares pack up)to kip on in the freight bay, forgot the "South" run went via Djibouti, I used to spend my leisure time there with the French Air Force scrounging rides in the back of the Skyraiders and around the area in the JU52's, that was how I spent my leave, never did the White Sands resort had more fun flying.
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Old 14th Nov 2017, 16:19
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Smile

Originally Posted by brakedwell
We were fortunate on 105. A Nairobi trip usually came up at least once a month and we made full use of Kenya Cold and the Nairobi Market. I remember fillet steak was five Kenya shillings a pound, but I can’t remember bringing any turkeys back to Aden. The sergeants mess at Masirah sold crayfish tails. Sixpence each if I remember correctly. Fresh prawns from Bahrain were also good value and it was possible to buy them on the weekly passenger schedule which flew directly to Bahrain (5 hours each way) and back with a two hour turn round, which was enough time to dispatch a tame taxi driver to the fish market in Manama.
Unfortunately the prawns had to be boiled in the hot cup during the return flight or they would go off. Some passengers were not impressed by the smell.
I think, on a two year tour serving in Stores, our option was a few weeks back home. LUKfree was it? Honestly can't remember how many weeks! Or having it in Kenya. I chose to go home!
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 13:05
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Obviously, some things changed quite a lot from the 50s to the 60s. Home leave?? ... definitely not , to the extent that when my father died I was refused compassionate leave "as my brother was already at the family home" Not any of the subsequent R&R to Mombassa either.
The Nairobi Cold Store runs were well established and, on one occasion produced an 'interesting' incident. Valetta (Phil H as Skipper) taking off from Nairobi couldn't get the tail up, so aborted. Checked the load and found a large, unmanifested consignment of steaks etc. in the chain locker in the rear. Quick restowing and no further problems.
Minimal contact with Little Aden, although they paid for the tiled dance floor at the Airmen's Club. Took my little Excelsior motor bike past LA and onto Silent Valley - possibly the most eerie place I've ever been to ... Silence, complete and utter, such that it made one's eardrums hurt - very, very weird
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