I've just finished reading Mr Parris' comments. Is he some kind of politician's Sharkey or something? Fourth largest Defence Budget does not equal fourth largest Military Force. And I was always under the opinion that it was the then 1st Sea Lord, Sir Henry Leach, who persuaded Margaret Thatcher to send the task force to the Falklands, not the other way round.:confused:

FB:)

Please excuse my ignorance. I have not seen any mention of Akrotiri being used as an asset in the current Libyan campaign. Matthew Parris seems to think that it makes more sense than Harrier/Carrier. Seems to me that both assets are being wasted. Please advise....my taxes are being burned.

Stuff there fighting the mad Colonel. 'Nuff said.

Ok, things are a lot different now but when I did my tour at Akrotiri 85-88 there were some pretty strange uniform rules then. One was (in winter) that during exercises or ops you would wear your normal DPM with a light blue shirt underneath. During another exercise the Staish decreed that everybody would Cam up, what a site he made with a cammed up face and the effect spoilt by his scrambled egg on his hat! At that time I worked on the Lox plant and it certainly took some time explaining that wearing oil based cam cream could lead to a big smoking hole in the middle of the base. Ahh happy days.

To put that in context:

At Coningsby, same time, I was at a brief and singled out as the only one wearing the proper kit. I can't remember at the time but I confessed to the staish later that I too had some variation.

As mentioned, blue shirts were common as the green shirts were uncomfortable and unpopular. I think OC Ops won on sartorial grounds and the biggest variation with the staishes aprobation (before he was later sacked for certain indiscretions). He wore an aircrew polo shirt with a KD shirt on top. Very poofy,(but that was not the indiscretion, (quite the reverse in fact).

As an accountancy stude with the Army at Worthy Down in about 88 or 89 there was a call out at about 9pm one Sunday (Turned out some idiot had left a bag where it should not have been). Quick as a flash I was into DPM and turnd up at the army version of GDCC. I turned out to be the only guy or girl in anything like unform, so they made me (RAF sqn ldr) the Ground Defence Commander for the night!

Agree with you about the green shirts Pontius. Most of us wore the lightweight DPM top under the standard DPM instead of light blue shirts

777fly wrote

RAF Akrotiri is being utilised, but not for offensive operations.

Akrotiri not used launch offensive strikes on Libya



TJ

The sight of an old fat CT in KD with big sweaty armpits and his gut hanging out of the bottom of his shirt, looking like an overweight geriatric Steve Urwin has now gone. That was the memeroy I have of AKT in 94 on APC. It looks a tad more proffesional nowadays.

We used to wear blue shirts with DPM trousers when at AFCENT/AAFCE in the early eighties. An American colleague remarked one day "do you realise just how high on the hill you have to be for that camouflage to be effective!"

..."KD and comfortable desert boots"...
 

Should have been there in July '74....

Well said Monkey. For a long time now Akrotiri has provided the service expected from a MOB with the resources of a FOB.

In 1981 at RAF Wildenrath, Graham Stacey was a Plt Off/Fg Off peer of mine. He was a great, fun loving guy & took (in good humour) an inordinate amount of flak in the mess for his unfortunately twisted mouth. I was amazed (but not surprised) today to see that after 30 odd years he has reached AVM rank. That is the close knit Rock Apes for you.

I, Graham & several others drove down to the "Rhine in Flames" at Koblenz one night & I still have the pictures - which he may want emailed (? Graham). Because of his facial disability & his ability to ignore it he will rise to higher things. Traditionally, the RAF only affords VERY senior rank to aircrew but this has to change.

Good on you Graham.

Deep scepticism was it? Ho-Ho! That's putting it politely... :E

I think the AT fleet would have been a little more sympathetic, in the past, to the personnel issues in LCRA had we not had to crew in a little before midnight, fly into the dawn, and arrive at a time convenient to those at the far end.

A time convenient? To who? The passengers perhaps? Or available handling slots back in the UK?

At the end of a long flight I'd rather be met by tired movers, ops personnel etc than be on a flight where the crew had to put up with a ludicrous crew duty 'day'. Sometimes those days are unavoidable, with LCRA transits they became a norm.

Oooh, this should be fun. I heart mover-bashing thread drift. ;)

My point is that the available slots back at 'home' were very limited. They tended to be 'booked out' early with the best times prioritised to civilian contracted flights. Being content with 'tired' mover crews simply isn't the issue - there are a limited number of teams (used to be two back in my day) which meant we couldn't come home early, and the flights were organised around such limitations.

There - I said something positive about 'those' guys :ok: