 It was around about May 1971, that we were told about going to Salalah in Oman,to help protect the Sultan of Oman and his people from the communists in the mountains trying to take over his town and his airstrip,we spent 6 months there with the lads from the R.A.F.and some of the Sultans own forces and other units. We had one Radar and one Generator, and 3 Listening Posts (Hedgehogs)that were placed someway from the main camp and manned 24 hours aday, we were using 2 shift system, one day on one day off, Most days we would be attacked by Mortar or RPG7,not always hitting the main camp but the Hedgehogs, some as that happened we were warned by radio or by sound and the Air raid siren would be set off by the lads in the Command Post for everybody to moved to their nearest shelter. Various injuries happened while I was their, from my troop and to other units and we were always on call for blood transfusion, we had a great Naafi, a medical centre,and a camp radio which played all day up to midnight,news songs etc.
As towards the winter months the mountain would change colour from sand and rocks to green, plants grass would appear making it better for the communists to move closer to the Hedgehogs to fire on our camp and to them, the RAF lads would fire back using Mortars, and on our camp the Sultan Forces would use their artillery guns and their airforce, we had one land very close to our Command Post and one person was injured,later they found out that a worker on the camp was seen pacing the distants from our equipment to the fence line for their mortars to fire on. |
