I sent a package of goodies to two US Marines, A friend on a forum I frequented, had his son over there and he had written home saying at mail time these guys never got anything and it was heartbreaking to see. So i made up a parcel, a couple of England Cricket team baseball caps, loads of UK sweets, couple of tinned goodies, rice pudding etc, beef jerky etc, some magazines, top gear mags, usual stuff, few medical bits, plasters etc...nothing that would leak or melt etc and sent it off.... got a letter back from son saying they were gobsmacked at mail call and over the moon with the British stuff i had sent as it was different.

Granby testing
 

I agree Lom. All sorts of fascinating flying and challenging issues. One of the major issues was that, although the RAF in UK had effectively shut down for 3 weeks over Christmas and New Year (at station level), we were still trying to keep up with testing the UORs that were flying off the shelves. On this day 30 years ago I flew the first GR1 trial sortie with the stand-alone GPS fitted, using Heathrow and Gatwick as diversions. We spent all of the sortie above cloud and were pretty much lost for most of it (apart from Yeovilton TACAN, which they had kindly left on for us) because of a software glitch in the patch designed to accommodate the GPS fix. I'd never gone off-map so fast! It took 3 days to rewrite the software - the second sortie was much better, and the software was released to the front line on the 8th. There was a lot of excellent work went on behind the scenes!

Oh, yes - I'd forgotten about the HaveQuick and the souq watches in the earpiece. Problem with that was that the fella who operated the box had his watch set 2 minutes fast, so the rest of the crew had to remind him when the actual time for the change came around.

We didn't have the luxury of RAF caterers, but we did have an exceptional bunch of squippers who could turn their hands to anything - including cooking some really good meals for us all.

Did anyone else have to lug all the Det crypto around the theatre? Climbing up the 37 steps to the pax bay in the Galaxy with deployment kit plus 5 white sacks of that stuff made for an interesting start to the whole Op phase; at least we didn't have to deal with that lot during the 2+ month work-up in UAE.

Interesting article on the Tornado missions using JP233 in the first week.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...rt-storm-raids

I spent 5 years building the rear section of JP233 at ML Aviation in Slough.

30 years ago tonight.....

....a few glasses raised tonight...especially in memory of those who did not return....

Privileged to be in the Air HQ Riyadh for 6 months and watch the extremely complex plan unfold:

On the World Wars podcast - Gulf War: Inside the Planning Room | The World Wars on Acast (Sorry if I have fallen foul of any PPruNe posting rules)

JN on the BBC yesterday morning when we woke on our lockdown slumbers. To Mrs NLG, JN, last seen at the Cenotaph in 2019. My first veterans march in 2018, newbie to the occasion and Mrs NLG, I was dropping off at the RAF Club as the Association had booked a room there for their after march function. I am not a member so waiting in the lobby for others from the Association to walk through Green Park. Another Gulf Medal with Clasp holder standing in the reception. I break the ice with "we hold the same medal, I was at ******** with *****". The reply was "I was based out of ********** and ******* . I missed most of the war as I found myself in the captivity of the Iraqi's. They were not very nice." It was Robbie Stewart. I knew the story.

BBC World. Watching England beat Ireland and laughing at the Welsh boo boys when the French gave them a damn good trashing!

It saved us from Saudi channels One and Two.

On the radio of the ramp vans, certainly where I was in the land commanded by Cliff Spink. I think it as a Granby theme.

Adam Robinson talks JP233 on the first night and LGBs later on in the war...

I could see it old bean! As for BDZ arrival, don't be silly, 10 Sqn had no idea of that. In fact when we joined the VC10 Force, I was told a VC10 would never go anywhere near a war zone, so no need for respirators or flying suits. Captains wore No 1s. Now I found myself over Dharan at 30,000 feet, on route to the Kuwaiti border, wearing AR5, no Mode 4, etc. Naturally, despite many sorties into 'the secret base', none of us ever got a medal. Anyway, you read my adventures in my book. Annoyingly, one person said I made it all up, including the duck strike :)

31st Dec - 11th Jan flying JP233 from Wildenrath to Dhahran sometimes with stop at Tubuk, Bahrain and Jubail in the Mighty 3 Star.

17 Jan we took a C130 LYE-YQX-OFF. 15:25 flying time to hand over our serviceable ac to the crew with an unserviceable one and an important load. Other than that, Aug-Apr inc 700ish hours, 200ish flights which would be pretty much par for the C130. Too many brandy sours.

You can never have too many brandy sours !

No such thing!! That's like saying "I ate too much Tiramisu"!

Back on topic....

...or wafer thin mints...