A Long Time Ago In A Faraway Land

Well, 7,703 miles and 24 years anyway.

Rather than Blip about the Saturday Shell Out-To Help Out egg marshalling at the rugby club again I thought I'd use an old photograph.

1997, Clare and I married in the February and I deployed to the Falkland Islands in March. It was a six months deployment and for some obscure reason the Royal Navy had loaned me to the Royal Air Force. All three services lived in the Mount Pleasant complex which was a bit like Dodge City some nights. Life revolved around the weekly RAF Tri-Stars delivering mail, stores and replacements and the odd Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship coming alongside in Mare Harbour.
The battlefields were by-and-large still intact, minefields ran alongside the roads and on some of the beaches, overall fifteen years on from the conflict it was still a pretty desolate place but life for the islanders was changing slowly and irreversibly.

Overriding memories of my deployment, my first grandchild was born mid-way through the deployment during a formal trial-service dinner, the announcement to the fifty + diners by the presiding officer cost me a small fortune in rum and cigars. Elsewhere Princess Diana died, Tony Blair became Prime Minister and Hong Kong was handed over to China. 
On the islands, I swam in the South Atlantic during their mid winter, played golf at Goose Green, the southernmost golf course in the world, the o.o.b areas were minefields, acquired a permanent tase for Spiced Rum and had the traditional 'nip' of whiskey at Shackleton's grave on South Georgia.

My most vivid memory, arriving back into Brize Norton on a hot mid September day and seeing Clare, well actually her legs, the Falklands, in their winter, is not a place for ladies in skirts/dresses, it had been a long six and a half months.