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The view held back on the dismal
north German plain and in the UK was that 55FST
was something of a swan and that we spent most of our
time on the beach under the coconut palms. It did not
help that it was a "secret war" and was kept so
as journalists were discouraged. It was long before
the days of electronic newsgathering. Mobile phones were
the stuff of the "Eagle" and Dan Dare. Whilst morale was
undoubtedly high this was in spite of the lack of
political acknowledgement of our presence in Oman
One event that cracked the shell of secrecy was the RCL
attack on the officers mess at RAF Salalah; regular
British officers as opposed to seconded or contract
officers were injured and someone told the
press. |
Those back at home appeared to
resent being "oncall" every other day whilst,
as they knew perfectly well, we were unquestionably
sunning ourselves on
the beach. It was quite hard to persuade them
otherwise. Salalah was a "detachment" rather than a
"posting" from the parent unit so
leave when we returned was going to be hard to come
by. There was of course the lighter side of the
homecoming.
On a more reflective note it was
deflating to return from a war that no one knew or cared
about to those whose only interest was how soon you
could slot back into the "oncall" rota so that they
could have a bit of time off. Adjustment to normal
routine in Rinteln was made easier as there had been two of us from
there out in Salalah together.
The Dhofar War still remains a largely
unknown, but successful war, which has been described as
the "Last Great Colonial War". |
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