Anyone else remember "The Swamp" at APC?
 

Chatting away with the Guy's the other day and ended up swinging that old lantern! One of the topics that came up was "The Swamp" at APC, Belize, home of the 4 puma crewmen detached to 1563 Flt ("probably the most exclusive airline in the world!!")

Tales of the SAS boys blowing off the doors at 3 in the morning for a party, cages of tarantulas for pets, prize pineapples being cut off plants and replaced by tins of chunks, DB being plastered at the elbows so he couldn't get his Standby Coke to his lips, Sundays lazing at Journey's End on rates.

Ahhhhhhh, all great stuff from a time when there was some fun to be had in the Mob, and the addage of working hard to play hard was far more in balance of play than work.

Anyone else remember these Halcyon Days with warm feeling? Open a Belikan, Coors or Miller Draught, or pour yourself an Appletons 151 with me, and give that old lantern a tap!! ;)

There are not too many rotary boys nowadays can claim to be 1563 Caribean Crewmen. However, I might be one of them:
http://www.artistic.flyer.co.uk/1563swamp.jpg
What happens on det, stays on det:ok:

Oh dear.

'There are not too many rotary boys nowadays can claim to be 1563 Caribean Crewmen'.

Some of us were living in the Swamp before 1563 had been invented. Isn't that right LSH where ever you are. My first visit was in 1979, last one in 1981. Tiger Tiger and all that.:cool:

TM,

Now that brings it all back!!

What about the Swing Fog at 0630 and 1630 daily, Joyce the cleaner and Sylvia the washer woman, the infamous Jimmy Spankie remark on BFBS (I'm just off to the :mad: Ball!!), Richie Rees (God Bless 'im) "Is my tan darker today!?"

We all need a bit of cheer now and again, so Happy Days! :)

Once a Carribean Crewman, always a Carribean Crewman!! :ok:

...and Raoul's Rose Garden :E

That is one florist that I have never visited. Ginge M*****n 'ordered' me to attend in 87 and I decided that he was such a dick that I would never obey. Besides which there were enough Puma groupies amongst the Doctors, nurses, teachers, CSE Roadshow chicks and you wouldnt want to be 'twos up' after a gurkha now would you.

LSH is now a committee (Sec?) member with the 230 Association.

When Bob T went home after handing over the Flight to John E, he had the publicity handshake photo taken outside and wore his "I've been to Raouls Rose Garden" t shirt for his last brekkie in the O's mess!! :ok:

ex rigger on CD hide.

was looking at Belize on the internet the other day seems to have got a bit posh these days.

Does the rose garden still exists, i remember a helpful lady there called Vera Vomitt who you look after your needs for $20.

Does anyone have pictures of what the airport looks like these days.

Wire T, I think we must have been on 230 at the same time.

I remember one Sunday night a certain Sqn Ldr B (by name and nature) made us night fly at APC. We wanted to watch the film at the OM instead. Every time we flew downwind we put the Puma searchlight on the outdoor projector screen. After about twenty minutes we got a call to say "pack it in, we can't see the film". We packed in night flying and joined the fun. :E

Anyone remember the OC Harrier "how to burn a hole in the runway" episode?

Oh No!! I'm having flashbacks of the Swamp from sometime between Nov '91 - Feb '92 :eek:

I don't remember much though, as it would appear that I was very, very drunk at the time!! :E

:D

It's still there!


http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e6...RoseGarden.jpg

GH/YH,

"Sundays lazing at Journey's End on rates."

Don't remember rates but do remember free food a grateful host and being expected to clang the crap out of the paying guests at volleyball :p

Also remember Joyce catching a certain ex policeman ex MACR now Commissioned ALM filling his palm with "bodily fluid" who in his haste to cover up his transgression simply rubbed his hands together then "splashed it all over" his face pretending it was aftershave :E

Belikin beer......................ummmmmmmm :ok:

More left hand seat time than you could shake a stick at and those crap packed lunches from BGS but the bounty advert where you eat it......fan feckin tastic :D

Goldfish bowls of G+T's on a veranda in Fort Fort Street? and the Pooh Pooh Platter, restaurant name escapes me........:ok:

Still must not reminisce as the desert beckons again in July........boy do I miss those days :)

New to Pprune Just got back from the pub and shown the wife the thread.

She has just reminded me of the face on the post man when he delivered the coconut that i had sent home.

Happy days.

Sent two of those, one to my kids and one to a family we had met the previous year on holiday and as you say confused/bemused looks all round.........ours is still in the downstairs loo 16 years on :ok:

Unfortunately I remember Rosie G's all to well!
The Chateau Caribbean & weekend trips to Chatumal for some civilization!!!!!!!
The barking mad Garrison Saarn't Major from the Duke of Boots who nearly died of heart failure when he found out he'd been saluting assorted FLM's,Riggers & Plumbers in our sailfish adorned SWB & had an apoplexy when told he couldn't enter FG,his name was'nt on the list so he wer'nt coming in.

;)

I was on 230 Odiham/Gutersloh from '77 to '81. I spent 12 detachments to APC Belize. Had a great time; San Pedro and Mexico at the weekends. BBQs on deserted beaches. Big C down town. Crossroads hotel. Fort St George. et al. Working late in the hangar getting devoured by the mossies and sand flies. Mice running around inside the 12 man hut. Lizards nesting between the tin sheets of the roof. I remember the swamp too. I was even invited in for a beer or two on occasions.




'We knew how to whinge but we kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

Six months there in '85. Best time I had in the SH force. Vividly remember Swamp induced hangovers (and a particularly nasty one after drinking pints of Pinacolada on Caye Chapel). Then there was the transit dahn south - radalt to 50ft - light on all the way. Hey ho, happy daze!

Seldom,

"Sundays lazing at Journey's End on rates."
We never saw the rates, but the "Duty Meal" rate for the Stby and R+R San Pedro crews paid for the rest of us!!

"Pooh Pooh Platter"
from the Chateau Carribean "Is that to share, or just for you, Sir?!"

"those crap packed lunches from BGS but the bounty advert where you eat it......fan feckin tastic :D"
Hunting Caye was the place, only one way in, land on the beach with the tail hanging over the sea. Great, unless a certain old pilot, DH, decided to go native. Maybe he should have been a Chinny Crewman!!!!

And the PJ - You know who incident, well, what more can I say!!!!!:ok:

Here we go chaps: http://www.230sqn.co.uk/

What memories!!

BGS resupply on a Friday with lunch at glorious Hunting Key or peaceful Salamanca

Overnight Batty's Bus up to Cancun for the weekend, lots of play, no sleep

Ghurka Bhart (best curry I've ever had, even the bones!!)

Transport in 60 mins before lift, transport back as soon as the cab was signed in

Night flying to be avaoided at all costs

Loadsa left hand seat, 2 crew ops

The list could go on and on!! :ok:

GH,

Mr James Spankie, now that's a name to conjure with. Always good for a laugh on a night out. Any idea where he is these days?

Is that Mr James Spankie with the intials GT?

If so, civvie, manager of B&Q last I heard, but that was several years ago and I am sure is history already. Left under quite sad, life changing circumstance that wiped the smile from his face; something that in his heyday would have been unthinkable.

Talking about wiping the face off; Ringo's aircrew watch in the liquidiser!
.....and who owned the one eyed Cobra, for I know Joyce (and not Pete) saw it on more than one occasion? Or Gimlets wallet going into hibernation only to reappear after several months and a police investigation.

Any Toga party survivors here, the one with the polystyrene (chips) oceon (or should that be swamp) inside the swamp to a depth of about 12".

Tasking for 7 hours 2 up, drinking a 2 gallon igloo dry between the pair and not going for a single p155.
Finally the bed under the aircon, the noisiest bliss known to mankind.

Night flying to be avaoided at all costs
 

Second time I went, we had a callout at dusk to find a severely dehydrated brown job. By the time we got there it was, as Baldrick might observe, 'as black as a very black, black thing in a black sack on a very dark night'. Portly Taffy pilot from Bridgend- name escapes me was the skipper. Wouldn't want to do it for fun!

Anyone remember 'tea parties' in the mess?

CG

"Is that Mr James Spankie with the intials GT?"

That's him, surely, there could be only one!!!!

As for Gimlet, a first drunken night in Rauls, then a fortnight on AB's and orange juice!!!

Mr C (Garth, as FS at the time!!) waking to find that we'd left the door open of the Trannie cage (left to us by the QM of the RIC) after a B's Ball, then processing his photos when he got home to find us with our hands and faces in said cage, and none of us could remember!!!!!

Still, and sadly, a time lost to the ravages of the past ten years. A time when you were allowed to have a bit of fun, and the saying "All work and no play makes Jack a dull lad" was sung by those above. :{

:{:{:{:{

Lunches on Hunting Key!

What was the recipe for the best Pinacoladas ever? I used to laugh so much, the Swamp would be ankle deep in Pinacoladas, Music on at 2 in the morning, while a couple of the crewmen would be trying to get some 'zeds'! Then someone shouts 'Fire in the hole!', The door blows off, in come the boys from22. The cleaner in the morning, the big Mamma, would just nod her head and mop up around the boys.

Lunches at Journeys end!

AG going out to fight a fire in the jungle and re-filling 'The Rain maker' at a pool in the jungle, only to find out later the pool was a fresh water shrimp farm, and he had just dumped 1 ton of fresh water shrimps on the fire!

Finding out that the beat of helicopter blades on the water did actually attract sharks, and trying with a junior crewman to put a slab of meat on the end of an 80ft strop to try and catch one and drop it in the brigadiers swimming pool.

Driving to Cancun and staying in a flea ridden $10 a night hotel, staying up till morning in Signor Frogs, going back to the flea pit, change into beach wear then walk through reception in the Sheraton, blag good morning to the concierge and walk out the back and spend all day sleeping on the beach, to start all over again at 6pm, never sleeping in the flea pit for five days.

Where is HG Wells with that time machine of his?? PLEASE!!

Or what about the bed in the middle of the room for the "FNG"? Want to sleep, on Duty Crew, pulled the curtain round and then the boys come in for a Swamp Party. Wakey Wakey!! :ok:

Tiger_mate:

Lemme see... I did three tours in the Swamp in '87... One of the Tiger pilots had too much class, (not to mention sense), to go calling people dicks in a public forum when they don't know who's watching... That leaves two others... Funnily enough one was generally known as "Mary" and the other was generally known as "Chrithtine", (yes, that's a lisp on the "s").

Unfortunately I don't recall the specific event you mention but I am quite sure that if I was ordering Mary or Chrithtine to attend Rosie's it was because I was the only one with the balls to tell whichever one of you it was the general consensus of the "troops"... That being that you were probably finally old enough for sex with a partner other than the palm of your hand... and please don't start regaling us with stories of "Doctors, nurses, teachers, CSE Roadshow chicks" because we all know that the percentage of "scores" in the officers mess wasn't even close to the number of blistered palms....:uhoh:

So... Is is Mary of Chrithtine??? PM me... I'd love to know...

God bless the Puma crews for the weekly Friday night ride out to San Pedro and back on Sunday afternoon.

Being a Butcher Radar boy we made full use of this excellent service!!

Wasn't San Ped redesignated the A/C Rollover Pan in the early 80s?

One of the crewmen (Iwasn't there) said it was like the dunker going in to get the bits and pieces afterward. Except it was dry of course. And not in Portsmouth...

CG

And thankfully not at the top of a 60 foot tower...... :)

San Pedro, the duty lunch was nice. Not so sure about the time we were over-run with land crabs in the duty room.

Remember it well.....my leaving do in the Mess which then ended up in the Swamp...Jabba naked in the bar mixing the pina coladas, Bratty forgetting to put the top on the mixer and covering everyone within 10ft with the contents of the jug. Raoul's and the daughter of the owner of the bar on the Hummingbird Highway doing a lesbian show for the boys with one of the employees. Staying 10 up in the Mayan Princess in San Pedro, skinny dipping with the Air Commander's daughter and some other very fit young doctors...them's were the days. These reminisences have just cheered me up no end...life in the stink pit (Asskrakistan) is the pits right now.

All of us that have left the air force and wish we were there to help and support all of your effort in these times,hope that you can still have a laugh and get home safely.

Being a driver, I was only allowed in the swamp with an invitation. Not being there every day probably saved me from alcoholism. Fantastic memories, made better by fantastic people. Gary Seaweed giving the CSM absolute rocks for daring to enter the 'new' swamp, Pigpens face when we forced landed in the jungle, my face when the group captain refused to pick us up post-incident (barsteward). A trip to Columbia, via Honduras, Nicaragua (at height of war!!) and Costa Rica. My R+R flight diverted to El Salvador, with subsequent detention for 3 hours by the secret police (never did report that). A total of nine months spent in paradise, 80% boring and uncomfortable, 20% total class. Do they use 151 in the Afgan Pina Coladas??

Then there was "Funkletrumpet" who turned on the fan to "blow" the f troops smoke grenade out of the Swamp, problem was it was a "goes-in"!! Red - Red - Pink!
JD's 3-ship, "smoke-on GO", the tape holding them to the step melted!!
Alfie Wells "swimming pool" (the reserve water tank), post-swim he lay on my bed. Very wet, Very smelly foul orange/green scum!
"Charlie" Farley "moonbathing", sunbed, shorts, shades etc etc.
Remember "the spermbank"?!
Belize, what a craphole!
lsh

And Caye Chapel, San Ped, Cancun, The Swamp ... If they are that bad, I'm not sure what you'd make of The Sandpit(s)!

Belize Radio: "The sea is chop to choppy", "Mrs Smith of San Ignacio, come home, your son is dead".
Air to ground GPMG firing at old cars on the range.
Airfield attacks, low flying up the river.
STIMS
Gateway House
RSM,s
Maybe I do miss some of it after all!?
lsh

Appleton's 151, rocket fuel for $10 Belize a bottle. So smooth on they way down, awful the next morning!

I remember at certain Crewman Ldr, DS, at Odious who had a bottle in his drinks cabinet for special occaisions, and came back one evening to find that his wife had used it in coffees for the girls after a night out!! :O

DS made us swig it neat at the post sqn lunch cricket match!!
Was the sea anything other than light chop to choppy??
Ish, if I was paying for a holiday then I would have felt ripped off, but it was a detachment for gods sake!! Cyprus, HK, Las Vegas all have a million tales to tell here, but Belize was just another planet compared to those places.
Swinging the lantern again..... The Gloucestershires were the resident pongos in country, they decided to hold an open day at airport camp. The SNCOs did a Morris Dancing demonstration for the locals. The look on the reggae devotees faces will stay with me forever, bewilderment as these grown men danced in the FULL kit. I was in tears as they all walked away and mobbed the jumble sale stall instead. Classic.

Columbian, Columbian Rock, No 1 in the Belizean chart from 1985 till 1988!! :yuk:

Anyone else remember the two crewmen (GMcA and PT) getting caught in the act of "liberating" the bell from the Sgts Mess back to blighty?

I knew some thing was up as soon as PT staggered (for more than one reason) into the "trooping centre" (cinema) with something very heavy in his beach bag; the strap was nearly cutting his shoulder off. As they sat down next to me it was more than a small giveaway when the bag went "DOI-OI-OING!" as it hit the floor.... I quickly moved along half a row!

Enter RSM and OC Det (JS) who beckoned said miscreant crewmen. Exit McA and PT, only to return minus the bag and contents.... lucky they weren't locked up. :rolleyes:

One night a "well worn" Harrier pilot tried to shoot a big ferocious landcrab which was living under the water cooler outside the pilot's rooms. A big claw used to appear and have a go at unsuspecting flip-flop clad feet... "Bona mate" took aim with his spear fishing gun, missed completely, only to see the spear bounce off the concrete and go straight through the plywood wall into the latrine block. Another pilot was showering when he had a very miss with the spear, which clattered in alongside him.

lsh, I think I was there too when "Noeffinit" did his trick with the red smoke grenade. First time I'd seen red flying suits apart from the Red Arrows.

No unfortunately we're dry. If we weren't I'd probably spend the day wrecked. Even the air here is poisonous!

Back to the thread; Best flight was with Ges C. down to Rideau the onto a Caye for lunch and a stim, watching the scandanavian scientists on the next caye sunbathing naked....cool.

Learning to Dive and sail at Journey's End. :DTop Fun. Flying Island Air to San Pedro was the scariest thing I have ever done:eek:. Taking Batties Bus to Cancun was the second scariest. :uhoh:Water-skiing by TJI Fridays not knowing the Croc in the Lake was a REAL LIVE ONE! Bungy jumping over the lake..the next scariest. Being flown from San Ped to APC by the Air Commander Martin E was an event I do not want to repeat:mad:.

Cane Juice hangovers....my god they lasted for days! Living in the Jungle for 10 days with a bunch of Hereford Hooligans was a real honour. Being taught to blow sh1t up and carrying out river crossings was a giggle. Land Crabs in the Mess, they were big bastards! Having a genuine Fer-de-Lance in the Bar one night...quickest I ever saw the Permanent Staff Pongoes move!