Provosts and indeed anyone on guard duty was issued with a small aide-memoire to consult should they, in the heat of the moment, forget the correct procedure to be followed if anyone approached their guard post.

As can be seen from the pristine condition of my aide memoire I didn’t have to fiddle around trying to find it to consult very often !!!! The only time I ever almost shot ‘someone’ on the base was one night when on patrol alone after I had stupidly seen the Exorcist in the open air cinema before going on duty. I sh*t myself at the sound of a noise, cocked my SMG & was about to let rip on full auto when one of the wild cats legged it out of a bin. The thought of shouting KIFF & firing single shots never entered my head!

Do you remember the RAF guys who used to trap & drown the wild cats? Their trade description was GD or General Duties. That meant they didn’t have a real role! They caught them in wire cages & drowned them in the static water tanks. Some of the un-neutered tom cats were HUGE! We caught a couple of cats ourselves one night & chucked them into their room after they’d gone to bed pissed. I always enjoyed working nights. There was always something interesting happening. I remember the sun would come up like someone flicking a light switch. I seem to remember that the BBC World Service was always played over the Tannoy system in the mornings & the tune of Lili Bolero ringing out. I did get involved in some serious drinking out there. On my days off I worked behind the bar in the Kennel Club which didn’t help!
When were you out there? I was there in 76-77

I remember listening to the football scores in the NAAFI whilst I had a Chocolate Milk to line my gut before hitting the whisky. The radio would fade in & out so we never really got the entire results!

Was it really 32 years ago?

We were located just across the way from the FST. If any wounded Adoo were helicoptered in we would recover any weapons & ammo they had & keep them in our armoury. Every now & then the BATT guys would call & collect them & sometimes we would be invited to go to their range to fire some stuff off & lob a few grenades. I detained a local Arab one night who had tried to steal booze from the Sgts Mess. He was high on khat. I handed him over to the Salalah town Police at our main gate. They threw him into the back of their Toyota truck & beat the cr*p out of him with rifle butts as they drove off.

During my time there I recall a senior officer at the FST being from the Royal Navy.I should try to put everything down in writing as there were some very funny incidents. We used to put our name down on a waiting list to see operations in the FST (I’m sure I haven’t imagined this). I bottled out when it was my turn! I remember giving blood out there.

Steve “Taff” Culliford