A Crab Goes Green
Shortly before Christmas in December 1986 I was working on the Aldergrove fuel dump. This was my daily grind, filling up tankers so that the Beaver's, Wessex's, Puma, Lynx's and Gazelles could continue to operate. My little cog in the bigger wheel that was Northern Ireland.
To be truthful it was a pretty cushy number and only about once a month would you be selected to do a job in civvies. Most of the time there was a rota for taking your turn as an escort but my turn seemed to be coming up more and more regularly. I must have upset someone along the way or perhaps we were getting busier.
Escorting involved going out in civvies to a base or bases throughout the province and delivery or picking up kit. I had no idea what we were carrying and didn't ask. Probably would not have told even if I had asked.
But today was special! In 8 hours the Squadron Christmas party was about to start. Loads of cheap booze, music and even some women.
However, local tanker drivers had been threatened by the IRA and took the decision to stop delivering fuel to bases down south. This left bases like Bessbrook short on fuel and helicopter operations at risk in the South of the province. Having to travel back to Aldergrove to refuel would put a major dint in the Army/ Air Force ability to support troops on the ground.
Suddenly one of the section lads pulls up to me in a Landrover and tells me to get ready to do a job off base.
I ask where I am going and what's the job. He laughs and says I am taking a tanker down to Bessbrook in about an hour - I didn't find it as funny!!!!
An AAC tanker had been shot at a few days ago and that was near Belfast. I was going down south in possibly the biggest and least armoured vehicle in the British Armed Forces. No... this was not funny at all!!!
So shortly after this I was at the briefing in my Combats and Flak Vest (still had the old kit when everyone else had the new vests with the built in plates).
Job - to move a tanker with approx 25k litres of AVTUR from Aldergrove to Bessbrook. Leave tanker there and return with Escort.
Escort - 2 Macralon landrovers with 8 RAF Regiment guys for protection.
My CO asked me if I wanted a personal weapon for this job, I declined at it seemed pointless. One bang followed by a large flash. A Browning or SLR was not going to change that. Besides we had 8 Rock Apes tanked up and gagging to get going (not quite right in the head these guys).
I am afraid I was not showing the right deference for his rank and was being a bit negative about the job and got a right bollocking for not being in the right frame of mind. Got my head in order and focussed on the job and what had to be done - the party could come later, if I got back.
We set off shortly after that and we did crack on a bit of speed. Noticed the landrovers were keeping a good distance away from us and I commented to the driver. He laughed and said "well wouldn't you?"
A short while later we hit the motorway and the convoy closed up. The top cover in the landrovers came down but they forgot to pull the hatch cover closed. I am afraid I did laugh at this point as the hatch cover flew up, over and crashed down on the roof with a mighty bang! I saw the guys in the back of the landrover curl up as if they were trying to avoid something. I think they thought there had been a bomb. They looked out the back at us, then smiled and gave a thumbs up. The 2 of us in the tanker were wetting ourselves by this point.
It felt good to laugh as the hardest bit was still ahead of us. Long winding roads, high banks and the worry that anything might happen. Of course the operation was at very short notice and it was unlikely that anything would happen but you never knew.
The further south we got the more tense we became. I suspect we had units on the lookout for us and probably had helicopter cover for the whole trip but you do feel exposed and alone out there. I don't envy the guys that do this sort of work on foot every day.
We arrived at Bessbrook with no other incidents and took the tanker down onto one of the lower helipads to get it setup for use. The driver then disappeared and left me to check the vehicle and contents for anything wrong.
I had checked the fuel before I left for contamination (no point in going down there with crap fuel) and now I had to check the tanks to ensure we had not lost anything on the trip. The only way to physically check the tanks is to climb on top of the tanker and dip them.
I climbed up on top of the tanker and started to dip them only to realise that at any time I might be hit by a helicopter blade or even worse by something else as the upper part of my body was now above the solid sheeting of the base perimeter - I climbed down very quickly.
With everything in order the driver and I took a slot in each of the landrovers for a fast transit back to Aldergrove. One of the Rock Apes was carrying a Baton Gun and pointed to his SLR. He warned me that it was readied and not to f*** around. He also kept on chanting "give us a contact, give us a contact!".
As I said before some of them do not appear very stable! Personally speaking I feel that if a job like this one is done with no excitement or drama then it is a good job!
We arrived back sometime later and I called back into the Squadron to see everyone having a good time at the Christmas Party. I didn't really feel like partying and just wanted to get my head down. But getting a few bevies down me helped me relax a bit.
It may not be as exciting or as dangerous as most of the Army jobs in the Province but this time I felt I had earned my pay out there.
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