Oliver.
I went to see Oliver, 'Can I have more?'Brilliant.
Chapter 2. Friday 10 March 1972.
Memo ;Ref order 113211
To Lt-Col. G. Allen
MI 3rd Battalion.
Johnson’s Barracks.
26 Jan 1972
Dear Sir,
After due consideration of your position, and with the man power at our command, we have selected 3 men whom we consider to be best suited to the task. These personnel will be sent to your Depot on Monday 13 March.
The men will be expected back to the Regiment immediately after tour. We hope this meets with your satisfaction.
Maj. T. E. Ellis. DSM.
We carried on training. Out on the firing ranges, we got to use some of the more unusual weapons. Each man was given the chance to fire a Carl Gustav 84mm and throw hand grenades. We needed this experience mainly because we were an engineering unit and had not been trained in anything but the rifle and pistols. In the class room we did memory training, history of Northern Ireland, riot training, politics, yellow card and intelligence. But the main thing was team building and fitness. They ran us ragged, pushing us to the very end of our tether.
After our final day’s training, we piled out of the wagon, wet through, our weapons covered in dirt and needing to be cleaned before being handed in to the armoury. Normally at the end of each day, everyone would have a quick glance at the orders posted on the notice board, but not this evening.
“What have you been up to?” Wally Rutter stuck his head in my room to give me the bad news. I could tell by his voice that it was not good news for me and he was enjoying it. “What’s up?”
He smiled, “You have to report to Cook’s office at six tonight, you and that fat lad in 3 Troop and a couple more.” He closed the door and was gone. My rifle was stripped down on the floor for cleaning. I looked at my watch, 16.52, shit. Tea was at 17.15 and I was starving, I carried on pulling the four by two through the barrel, it had to be shining before they would accept it back into the armoury. Gaff came in and threw his rifle on his bed.
“Have you read orders?” He started to take off his wet boots.
“No but Wally’s just told me I have to report to Cook’s office at six.” I carried on oiling the rifle.
“Yep and the other two, bit of a motley crew if you ask me, what’ve you done wrong?” We both knew it was not a promotion.
At the armoury, I stood in the queue to hand my weapon in. Each weapon was inspected very carefully.
“Fuck off and get it cleaned properly cunt, this Gat is manky.” There were two NCOs and the armourer inspecting and they were not taking anything that did not shine. The soldier wandered off dejected.
I crossed my fingers as I handed my gun over. It was quickly stripped down and a critical eye expertly inspected.
“That’s fine.” He started to make the rifle up. “Do you know you’re in the office tonight?”
“Yes, any idea what’s it about?” I knew he wouldn’t say, but it was worth a try.
“I think he wants you to baby-sit his daughter, she’s only seventeen.” He winked at me, the other men around laughed, I headed for the canteen.
I rushed back from a hurried meal; I was still in my combat gear, still covered in muck, but time was running out and I went straight to Cook’s door. The other men were already there and I did not like what I saw. If you could hand pick two of the most useless turkeys from the Squadron this would be the two and I was the third. I fell in at the end of the line standing at ease, ready. I was running things through my head, preparing excuses. Suddenly the door opened and the clerk came out of Cook’s office.
“Listen in to my word of command.” We were being marched in. I would have expected just to be told to walk in, but no.
The clerk’s voice was thin but carried the length of the hall. “Attention.” We snapped to attention. “Left turn, quick march.” We filed into the office, marking time until the clerk gave the order to halt, on the wrong foot so we lost our time and we looked like a bunch of new recruits.
Cook looked up from the memo. “Well men, we have had a request from Military Intelligence for three men to work for them during the tour of Northern Ireland and although we are very short handed at the moment, we have to follow orders.” He looked at our faces to see the effect of this news. “And we have picked you three, because we feel you meet the requirements.” He looked again at the document. “You must report to 3rd battalion on Monday morning 08:00. You will need to take all your army kit and all the civvies you think you’ll need for the full four months. Your mail address will still be the same.” He thought for a while. “I want you back safe and ready for work at the end of the tour, so be careful.” He looked at the clerk. “Dismiss the men please.” The clerk marched us out telling us that the transport would pick us up at seven thirty on the Monday. We turned to our right and broke off.
None of us said anything until we were outside; it was cold, the wind was cutting but we stood and chatted for a while. I lit a cigarette.
“Whoa, wait till I tell my Mum.” The chubby lad was beaming; the others seemed pleased as well.
“What do you think we’ll be doing?” The tall gangly lance corporal asked, as if we knew the answer.
“Well someone has to clean the bogs out.” I said. This brought them down with a bump.
“I’m a radio op,” the fat boy asserted. “I’m damned if I’m doing that”
“I’m a bridge builder and mine warfare man myself.” I said quietly. The radio op course was only six weeks and we all did a bit of that. “No, we’ll be doing dogsbody stuff.” I was not hopeful it would be James Bond stuff.
“See you on Monday.” I left them there speculating, and went up to my room.
Gaff was sitting on my bed. I went over and sat on the bedside locker. He passed me a cigarette. “Well?”
“I’m being sent to Intelligence.” I waited till he thought about this for a while and slowly a smile came across his face.
“You can’t even do the Sun crossword. God they must be desperate.”
“Well I don’t think they want Einstein, we’ll just be filling in. Anyway I’ll find out next week. I have to be there on Monday; we go out on the same day as you.”
“Do you fancy a pint?” I nodded. “I’ll get a quick shower and then we can go to the club.”
We played table football all night and bowled back to our room nicely mellow. I fell asleep quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment