Flights and Terror
All is Not as it Seems
The Gulf War involved many aircraft, equipment, and personnel movements. Our role in P&SS (Provost & Security Services) was to support many of those processes across a wide range of different airfields (civilian and military) in regard to this conflict.
Manpower was spread thin for us as of course we still had to cover duties around Gutersloh. Also, some of our RAF Police manning were sent out to the warzone along with the RAF Regiment to both maintain security in the field and…yes, be combatant.
A constant shifting of British troops ensued and many of the major civilian airfields were used such as Hanover and Hamburg, so “trips out” to manage these flights were frequent.
I guess you expect this to be an orderly well-managed affair? On paper, yes, and the job got done but the reality of being amongst hundreds of servicemen getting ready for a flight to war…hey, not so good.
One particular day, I think we were working at Hanover Airport, we were due to process 3 flights out to the Gulf. The mode of aircraft was the Airbus 320s which had been contracted to the military and seated around 200.
The first flight was duly processed and then led to the aircraft. We have to produce paperwork for the aircrew to validate passenger headcount, etc. On this occasion, I was the one delivering the paperwork.
Moving down the plane towards the cockpit…hell, things were tense and everyone was in silence.
As I was about to gain access to the cockpit, a deep and very loud voice echoed out through the silence.
“Right, you lot! You have to remember one thing….WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!”
Spinning around I could see an Army Warrant Officer, standing at the entrance to the aircraft, the one delivering this heartwarming thought, who then moved to his seat and buckled up.
The next flight of the day started ok…
…a gradual procession of soldiers showing ID, declaring their baggage went through to the outbound lounge and settled there. But we realised that 6 that were listed on the outbound manifest, had not yet checked in.
We initiated tannoy calls for the people not yet checked in.
Then we started a search of the terminal, it’s a big place so they may have gone to the wrong gate…perhaps.
It was also a possibility that one or two could be using the toilets. On checking that area we did find two soldiers…
…they were both in a single cubicle together…trying to burrow a hole through the wall in an attempt at…well not getting on the flight.
We escorted them to their senior officer and then processed them onto the flight.
The other four?
They were never located in time for the flight and counted as FTR (Failed to Report). It turned out later, that these four had left their base together in a mini-bus and had decided to go AWOL (Absent Without Leave). They wouldn't be going to war but for certain would be seeing the inside of prison cells.
So yes, it was grim, how could it not be, not least for the poor sods going to an unknown future in a high-risk theatre of war.
Life in and around RAF Gutersloh, when we had our “normal” duties also had its moments.
As part of our general shift duties, we would ensure the whole of the base perimeter was secure. A slow drive around the outside of the fence and taking in all of the nooks and crannies adjacent.
One night shift, whilst doing the perimeter check we noted an old silver VW Campervan parked up on the edge of the road and within 50m of the fence line. It was in total darkness and an unusual place to be at 3 am.
We radioed the German Traffic Police for a registration check…
…within a minute or two they called back…
“It is a red Toyota Corolla, registered in Paderborn”
I requested they check that again.
They repeated that the licence plate was for a red Toyota Corolla…
Not a good sign.
Reporting back to our control, we advised them of the situation and that we had progressed to calling for German Police support for the Campervan which evidently had incorrect plates on.
You may be thinking, why didn’t you just go and knock on the door? You were live-armed so could probably deal with it. The answer to that is basically we were also living in the times of terrorist attempts from the IRA. This vehicle could well be a bomb ready to trigger at such a manual approach.
So, the German Police arrived, very quickly and tooled up to the nines.
I went through the details with their incident lead officer, who agreed that this was a dubious situation.
Tactics of approach were discussed and to me, the Germans looked ready to shoot up the vehicle and then see what happens…
Speaking with the German lead officer, I asked if they would check the licence plate once more before we went in heavy-handed. To be honest, he was pretty disgusted that I should make such a request “They don’t make mistakes..” he responded, but with my persistence agreed…
“They don’t make mistakes…”
But they had!
The check came back confirming a silver VW Camper registered in Celle…oops!
The German Police were very red-faced at this gaff and said they would approach the vehicle to see if they could raise the occupants. On doing so an elderly couple emerged, sleepy-eyed and dishevelled. They were on a road trip around their old haunts and got tired and decided to park up and move on the next day.
Just think what may have happened there…shoot first and see how it flops.
Thankfully, it turned out ok and during future socials with the German Police, of which socials were a regular thing, we didn’t rib them for getting something wrong…honestly, we didn’t lol.
On the domestic front, my wife had settled into an admin job, our two young boys were growing fast and talk of educational opportunities would be on the horizon soon, beyond their nursery school placement at the time.
Having a social life was engrained in lifestyle, as a couple but even more so for me…more on that next time.
Until Next Time
Make sure you check out next week’s issue:
“Socially Acceptable?”
“Shots Fired!”
and
“The Final Countdown”
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