They made it a *Major's post! When was this, I wonder (I was there 1979-82)? How many blokes were there (including the hospital detachments, of course) at that time?
Are you pulling my leg there, Malcolm; how could those all those guys be spared for a week of non-productive fun like that?
I once proposed an exercise based on a hike up the hill to the
Teutoburger Wald, complete with tools and test equipment (
aka AVOs) stuffed into '58 pattern webbing to navigate to a "crashed" Bedford that had "spilled" a Picker field x-ray set. The mission was to "fault find" the (simple) fault on the Picker, make the repair then heave it back into the lorry, get the Bedford going again and cabby back to Richmond Barracks for tea and medals in the Mess! All pretty realistic, I thought (considering our role) - remember "battlefield repair techniques"? Needless to say, my plan was vetoed by Captain H***, citing something along the lines that "we don't have time for that sort of thing".
The only "warlike" things I can remember getting involved in at Bielefeld were supporting the Field Hospital exercises at Olen, and the Rheindahlen Marches! In fact is was very difficult to get away from "work" at all. All I managed to escape to was a couple of weeks at the Army's Outward Bound School in Norway (which was a great experience); naturally, I checked out the Boiling Sterilizer whilst I was there!
* I would be interested to learn the name of that gentleman - PM me if you like.We had an ex-SAS RAMC Major at the BMH in Hong Kong (I'm told he ended up as a Brigadier); I helped him set up a nice little exercise which entailed a bit of gentle abseiling followed by a hike across the hills (semi-jungle, but also gentle, as we had nurses with us) and a bit of radio procedure to end up at the BBQ on the beach. Luckily, I had kept hold of the compass (and the map)! All very "medic", if you know what I mean. There were only two of us REME techs there in those days, and we could only be "spared" (away) one at a time. Great times, though; probably the best two years of my life!
