bit like me solent60, 16 years in the army supposed to be based in germany for most of them but actually spent 10 years in n. ireland on various tours and even when i got a promotion course in the uk i got pulled off it to go to the falklands. a tour in cyprus got cancelled for gulf 1.then back to ireland and they wondered why i took redundancy. i reckon someone at the records office had it in for me.
I guess Mitch that it goes with the territory when you take the King’s shilling lol.
After two 6-month stints in the Falkland Islands in ’82 and ’83, I joined another Type-42 destroyer, HMS Cardiff, in 1984 and went straight to the Middle East for a 6-month deployment on Armilla Patrol during the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988. Basically we would escort British & European oil tankers through the narrow Straits of Hormuz & into the huge oil terminals in Saudi, Bahrain, etc. We did that for 2-weeks on – two weeks off. Much preferred the hot climate of the Middle East to the barren, dismal Falkland Islands, that’s for sure! During the 2-week break when we handed over to a frigate that came with us, we would enjoy several days or a week or more alongside in such places as Karachi, Mombassa, Muscat (Oman), Bahrain, Saudi, Colombo in Sri Lanka… even a 5-day visit to The Seychelles! We were also the last British warship to visit Mogadishu, Somalia before it all kicked off there with the war against the rebels. I remember we had to leave a day early because things in town were getting pretty bad & the UK Admiralty didn’t want one of its warships taking fire from AK 47’s and RPG’s from rebels on the dockside!
Happy days though Mitch back then & I wouldn’t swap them for the world. I spent 5-weeks alongside in Mayport, Florida just weeks after my 19th birthday, while the Yank dockyard workers did some essential work on my ship because Portsmouth couldn’t fit the work in – so no complaining there! Two months later we had a huge boiler fire onboard whilst alongside in Philadelphia & ended up staying there an extra 6 days – no complaints from me on that one either! I think I’ve seen almost every country in Europe & the Mediterranean that you can get to by ship… and been through the Suez Canal several times – so it goes without saying that life on the ‘Grey Funnel Line’ was certainly varied & interesting and it’s a great life if you’re young & single – which I was.
Saying all that; I still haven’t – and never will – forgive bloody Galtieri for ruining those 3-weeks in Hong Kong that never were!!!