Sunday 8 March 2009

West Side Story - Salalah

I shall always rememember the interuption during the showing of the film, a rocket arrived from the rebels in the hills to the north west of RAF Salalah, I was the projectionist at the time and I was showing the film to the six members of the sergeants mess. When the rocket landed my colleagues all vacated the mess and made a hasty move to the air raid shelter which was just outside the mess. I could not join them as the 16mm film projector had to be switched off and made safe.
Having switched off the projector and pulled out the the plug to the electrics, I then grabbed my torch and headed for the shelter. only to find that there was nobody in there, I shone my torch and quickly discovered that there was a snake's nest on the floor of the shelter. I made a fast exit out the other side of the shelter and back into the Sergeaants mess where I settled myself under the bar with a bottle of whiskey. After one more rocket and the 'all clear' my colleagues returned to the mess where they found me well inebriated and so we had a goodnight drink at about midnight and retired to our beds. West Side Story was shown to the Mess the following night.