“I WAS SLIGHTLY DEFICIENT AT THE TIME”
At 107 M.U. Kasfareet, the only sign of sartorial
elegance was on the Guard Mounting Parades when the Orderly Officer
for the day lined up all the men for inspection, then chose the smartest
airman as “Stickman” – this meant the lucky lad
was excused Guard Duty and could toddle off to the Armoury, hand in
his rifle, and have a free evening back with his buddies. We all had
the same opportunity, since we all wore a uniform tailored for H.M.
Forces by those imperious specialists – “we-don’t-give-a-toss-Bros”
I was therefore a little perturbed one day at work when the Sergeant,
who earlier in the year had seconded me to work at Port Said on
the Docks to replace native labour … well, he now took exception
to my patched up shorts. “Where is he going to send me to
this time? – Timbuktu?!!”
I need not have worried however because all he did was to hand
me a chit saying that I was deficient …. And sending me to
the Clothing Store for a new pair of pants!!!
The exchanged ones, tailored by the above “we-don’t-give-a-toss-Bros”
were up, or more accurately DOWN, to their usual standards –
far too long and in a greenish khaki!! A contrast to my old pair
which had been bleached by the sun and probably pummeled on stones
by ‘dhobi whallahs’, into a “cool” shade
of beige and which I had had shortened to six inches above the knees,
with added turn-ups, by an Arab tailor.
Yes, they may have had different shades of K.D.
patches in the rear – but to me they were “Personalized”!!
Ah well, Ray – Let’s do it all over
again – That’s Life!!
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With all the frustrations of a food shortage in
the Suez Canal Zone in 1952, the Airman’s Mess still provided
the men on night Guard Duty with sustenance. At midnight a vehicle
with cheese sandwiches and an urn of “chai” would visit
the six Guard Areas around Kasfareet’s perimeter barbed wire.
I never found a rat’s tail in my ‘sarnie’
but our imaginations ran riot because the contents of the ‘wad’
invariably had big pieces of hard rind in with the cheese, and sometimes
a bit of the gauze wrapping still attached!
“Waste Not – Want Not” was the maxim of our Chief
Cook!!!
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This is at the “business end” of our jobs alongside the
Suez Canal.
Although the driver I was escorting was a bit of a “nutter”,
and as soon as we came up to the tree-lined bit of the road, he put
his foot flat down!! Incidentally, some of my veteran Army friends
remember this part of the Canal Road and it was they who described
it as being called “Sniper’s Alley”
– Several nasty Incidents apparently happened there!!
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