Fatfox9's Blog

Probably 1974

Early morning……first light just gone.  First call-out just arrived.

My billet was quite a way from the the ops room at 1 Indep and I was running and mumbling as fast as I could to get there.  Considering I was loaded down with my rifle, full battle webbing (no chest webbing yet), 1st line ammo, and a mine detector I think I got there in good time.  I was not sure what was going on yet but had the feeling something had happened as I was not asked to go through this routine every morning.

I was told to put my kit down and wait for a briefing.  The person who was to do the briefing came into the office and I recognised him as one of the extra-marital shaggers.   To be honest I had got to know him over the last few weeks and actually he was not a bad sort of chap really…..he respected the Sappers and that was good enough for me.

I was informed that there had been a mine incident in the very early hours of the morning, the result of which was a crippled Bedford RL.  I was to be choppered out from Forward Air Field 1 (FAF1), the local Rhodesian Air force base, accompanied by a couple of infantrymen as a protection party.  My mission was simple……check the road either side of the casualty for 2 clicks and see if I could find anything else.  This had to be done as soon as possible as a recovery vehicle was waiting to get in and take the damaged RL out.  They could not move until I gave them the all clear.

Seemed pretty simple enough.  Little did I know the tragedy that had been the precursor of the mine incident.  I was soon to find out.

The picture below shows a Bedford RL.  This is an identical vehicle to the one I was flown out to assist the recovery crews with.

Bedford RL