???was in the Border war???

[Low Level]

Hi Graham, two things- Judging by the clean white (Naas Botha) style shorts you wearing

I thought it's the monkey wearing the white shorts. Couldn't find Graham in the pic.

[Big Al]

Hey Cobra

Now that is one nostalgic pic. I was at 140 sqn 81-82. We took up the old marconi radar equip from 70 MRU - Pietersburg sfter we took on Plessey (methinks) radar.

Post more pics of Ondangwa and 140 if you have or email them to me

Cool!!

[Apicella]

There is a nice article on the MOTH (Memorable Order Of Tin Hats) web site.


You've received the Call up instruction.... been warned ... and now it's time .... grab your kit and here we go.......

Here is the Link.

http://www.moth.org.za/moth95.htm

More on the MOTH ORDER.

http://www.moth.org.za/moth286.htm

[Cacofonix]

yes it was the best time of my life! i was a kwevoel driver stationed at AFB Ondangwa december 1979. 1 maintenance unit. drove all over the place. sector 10 was my home. once loaded so much cases of beer from grootfontein weekend spent back at ondanwa monday morning oshakati and then escorted to rucana. forgive me what a party drank a whole lot of beer, had a benoude babelas for a week i loved the times i would have a bladder on the back stapped down with 8000 + aftur refueling gun ships pumas as we travelled that awesome landscape. buffel in front hit tm57 need the rim as display in front of my faded army tent. needless to say captain said coskey what the hell are you doing with that junk...but capt'n... Having the impala jets and the mirage taking off land victory rolls flying by looking at that flamin behind and the sound of the roar of those jests sending shivers down my spine . ondagwa was reved one night AA guns had a wail of a time. Hit huge contact never to be forgotten. been on one massive ops..memories..flew in a decota and hercules clocked my kwevoel 100, 000 km for my country. there was this one farm we used to sleep over under the trucks between grootfontein and the oshivello gate...a huge deep hole filled with water like a weired blue green dived off some like scafolding thing into the water. sun soaked myself. "dont take those misqutoe tablets you wount catch a tan stuff" waited for the vlossie weeks before the time to take me back to sivie street. listening to neil young, mike batt, rollong stones, pink floyed the wall, meat loaf, roxy music and many more.. left ondangwa with a heavy heart july 1981 They said no cameras no photos. i was so paraat sorry no photos...Glory Days

[andreb]

hey Bennie
I remember Grooties well. Spent some time there. 2MBB. Used to guard the airfield and petrol dump. Lived in the maintenance base and ate at signals mess. The movies in Grooties town brings back memories.
It was good and bad times....loved it!
Andre

[Leprachaun]

Started me time in Voortrekkerhoogte , migrated to Wonderboom and commuted daily to Poytens in Pretoria , spen time strolling the streets with some building plans , evetually ended up in Katima and Mpacha - had a great time thatching roofes - never done it before , but anything to get out .
Spent most of me army life there , had great fun escourting ration trucks to and fro from airport. never short of rations - did some "hunting " while cutting wood for platoon huts and grass for roofs - caught plent of fish and drowned may beers in the Zambezi - had many nerve racking experiences moving material to and from Runtu and Grooties .
Pity the young clan dont do it these days - what a life Leprachaun

[Big-D]

Eish Cobra - You carry your years well mate, did not think you were much older than me, but there you are in a photo in 1980 doing the army thing - I was 4 years old

[AndyG]

Please remind me what we were fighting for again

Was in 5 SAI from 85 to 87. Ran the photography department. Did 4 trips up to the border to take pics for Paratus magazine. Only stayed a week at a time. The okes based up there used to get really miffed when they saw me leave after only a week.
Will try and dig some pics out that I smuggled out when I left. My house got raided by the security police about a month after I klaared out but luckily the pics were not there. Got grilled by them for about 4 hours

[Trikenut]

Hey,
Thought I should say something about my dad...
He never actually fought because he dropped out 3 quaters of the way through Officers training. He didn't like the violence. So he spend most of his service as a photographer for his base (Bloemfontien I think) and used to sit in his dark room 'developing pics'... Actually he was playing on the bases computer!! (One of the first ones that ever came out!) As far as I know, he never went up to the border, he just stayed @ base!
Cheers
Ross
BTW: I decided to post this after Andy said he was in the photo department!

[No Fly Now]

I did two border trips. First one Jan to March'76 with 10 maintenance. OC of the ammo depot at Rundu for 1 1/2 months then OC of the main depot at Grooties for the balance. Drove those mighty 16-speed "tree'd aan" trucks up and down over the "kap lyn" tyrying to earn as much danger pay as possible.
Flew in the Puma testing the first 20mm cannon mounted inside and made 44-gallon drums 'dance" on the Rundu skietbaan and the whole chopper used to jerk sideways with the recoil!
Second trip was Ondangs in '80 and spent all the time in the Airforce mess, with the result that I hitched many a ride on sorties on the Aloes and flying sipplies to places like Mpupa in the C130's. We would fly at 50 ft most of the way, and then pull hectic G's as they powered up to 5000 ft then above the runway would do hectic spiral dives right down onto the grouund. Awesome for a wannabee flyer!
A fave memory was the Alo pilots used to swop overalls with the medics and then when the "newbie doctors" arrived on the base, the "doctors" used to ask them if they wanted to go for a chopper ride to see the base. They would of course gladly agree, and once seated in the chopper, the "pilot" would say to the "medic" hey, you've flown so often with me, why don't you fly, so they would take off and fly straight towards the hangars supposedly with a doctor at the controls, and then bunny-hop the chopper all over the place until the new medicas were panic-stricken, at which time they would spil the beans> Great fun was had, and very sad in a way to go home!

[Tumbleweed]

Monthly salary= R96.00 p/m- married okes R150.00, less regiment fees= R5.00, less haircut fees = R3.00, less TV fees, R2.00. Only way to enjoy your pay was to return from a patrol after 2 weeks and get vrot.

Turning the ratpack into a gourmet meal and lying 8 km from base listening to the arses getting vrot in the canteen singing to the last surviving tape after 4 months - Men at Work.

Checking the camp animals expand from patrols- Piet bok the goat who used to chew all the washing, several brakke who used to teaze the hell out of the pedigree bomb sniffer Alsations, Shitrag the owl getting bliksemmed by the resident chicken for chasing her chicks.

[No Fly Now]

Ja, Tumbleweed, on my '76 trip, beers were 10c, whisky was 8c and white spirits 5c, so the cheapest way to get shickered was whisky & H2O

[No Fly Now]

hey, peters, I was at the maintenance camp at Ondangs in '80 and our mess was right under the watchtower on the Ondangwa/Oshakati road, and we would get woken bolt upright when the guards would open up in the middle of the night with those .50 Brownings at the bloody donkeys in the veld (they would always say it was the owambo's stalking the camp). Eish what memories.

[cobra]

Eish Cobra - You carry your years well mate, did not think you were much older than me, but there you are in a photo in 1980 doing the army thing - I was 4 years old

Hi Big-D, so you spotted the youngster to the right next to the guy with the darkies with no shirt

Hey Cobra

Now that is one nostalgic pic. I was at 140 sqn 81-82. We took up the old marconi radar equip from 70 MRU - Pietersburg sfter we took on Plessey (methinks) radar.

Post more pics of Ondangwa and 140 if you have or email them to me

Cool!!

I have been digging around, only the one