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NBC and Gas Chambers
The whole point of it is to make sure you get a good fear of getting gassed.
after passing out at Catterick I was sent down to RAC Demo Sqn at Warminster where my sqn was serving and we entered into the full range of exercises to train JDSC, Senior Brecon etc. One of the first exercises in the three month phase was 'Busaco Ridge'. On the first morning we trooped out at around 4am and took up positions along a strip wood at the back of Imber Valley. We cammed up and then set about doing maintenance, making food, running out D10 - the usual script in any hide.
I was sitting having a fag and a chat with my mates when WALLOP a white Hunter passed over at 50 feet. You don't hear them coming when they're flying at that speed and you only feel them when they're right on top of you. We all sat stunned for a minute and then started the usual round of gags about Crab air, then guys started coughing. Then our eyes started streaming. Only then did we realise that the aircraft had dumped CS on us from his drop tanks.
There was a mad panic after that to find discarded and stowed respirators but every one of us got a good dose.
It taught us something - always be suspicious of low flying aircraft - even your own, and always mask up until you know it's safe. It was a lesson we never forgot and we never got caught again.
They stopped using the Hunters on us about two years later because some dopey fighter jockey accidentally dropped the gas on Salisbury town centre and the local medical services were inundated with hundreds of people who got gassed. There was panic because of the proximity of Porton Down, so MOD decided that discretion was the better part of valour and ceased the CS drop for the rest of our stay at Warminster.
after passing out at Catterick I was sent down to RAC Demo Sqn at Warminster where my sqn was serving and we entered into the full range of exercises to train JDSC, Senior Brecon etc. One of the first exercises in the three month phase was 'Busaco Ridge'. On the first morning we trooped out at around 4am and took up positions along a strip wood at the back of Imber Valley. We cammed up and then set about doing maintenance, making food, running out D10 - the usual script in any hide.
I was sitting having a fag and a chat with my mates when WALLOP a white Hunter passed over at 50 feet. You don't hear them coming when they're flying at that speed and you only feel them when they're right on top of you. We all sat stunned for a minute and then started the usual round of gags about Crab air, then guys started coughing. Then our eyes started streaming. Only then did we realise that the aircraft had dumped CS on us from his drop tanks.
There was a mad panic after that to find discarded and stowed respirators but every one of us got a good dose.
It taught us something - always be suspicious of low flying aircraft - even your own, and always mask up until you know it's safe. It was a lesson we never forgot and we never got caught again.
They stopped using the Hunters on us about two years later because some dopey fighter jockey accidentally dropped the gas on Salisbury town centre and the local medical services were inundated with hundreds of people who got gassed. There was panic because of the proximity of Porton Down, so MOD decided that discretion was the better part of valour and ceased the CS drop for the rest of our stay at Warminster.
Catapultam habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam!
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wannabe_bootneck
- Member
- Posts: 555
- Joined: Sun 01 Feb, 2004 5:23 pm
- Location: Nottingham, england
