Bravo November

Due to the loss of the Atlantic Conveyer we had a huge shortage of choppers.

One chopper that we almost all came in contact with was the sole surviving chinook "Bravo November".

I remember one particular incident which involved Ian Amos our Company Sergeant Major. We had just recently placed a tent over the latrines that had been freshly dug some distance from where we were staying at Ajax Bay in what had been the "Red and Green life machine". Ian had commissioned one of our REME armourers to make some "thunder boxes" so that instead of squatting over an open trench to do "our business" we would have the luxury of being able to sit down. Now Ian was a man of habit in that each morning he would go to the latrine tent with a copy of The Sun with strict instructions that nobody was to disturb him.

Problem is nobody had thought to tell the RAF that we had changed the location of the spot where the replem chopper was supposed to land. So you can imagine what happened when "Bravo November" turned up for her normal replem only to find a bloody big tent in the way. Of course not knowing what to do and at this point not able to see the frantically waving guardsman telling him not to hover over the tent she kept station for good minute or so.

Have you seen what the downdraft of a fully laden Chinook does to to tent?

All I can say is that poor old Ian was letf clutching an inch of The Sun each hand while everything else was ripped away. There he was fully exposed to the world with his trousers around his ankles yelling blue murder up at the pilots.

We all thought it was hilarious but Ian certainly had a sense of humour loss that morning and we all kept a healthy distance away from him :)

Anyway, 30 years later good old "Bravo November" is still at it flying missions in Afganistan

Bravo November