On my return I had moved up the tasking board and Hotel team welcomed me. The team consisted of Fg.Off. (now Sqn. Ldr.) Simon  Fletcher, Flt.Sgt. (now Mr) Mick McMahon , Sgt. (now Mr.)Dave Roberts, Cpl. (now Flt.Sgt.) Steve Bishop and SAC (now Sgt.) Baz Murphy. We seemed to be lucky, and were tasked as a team for most of the time (well, we seemed to do a lot of the 5 Airborne exercises together).

In January 1989, after 2 years on Mobile, PMC decided that I had had enough fun, and sent me to Belize.  By the time I left Hotel team, there had been a few changes and the team consisted of Fg.Off.Lee Doherty  (Now Wg. Cdr. and the new OC UKMAMS), Mick McMahon, Phil Smith, Cpl. Stu Whitton and SAC Jase Holmes, whom I had been with in the Falklands.  Jase was killed in a motor bike accident in 1996.

While in Belize, I started to get a complex about being followed by a short Italian speaking Flt.Sgt. George Lynes had been in MAMS Ops while I was on Mobile. He arrived half way through my tour in Belize as the Flt.Sgt. Air Movements Flight.

At the end of the 6 months (actually 5 months and 3 days), I was posted back to Lyneham, this time to A-Shift. The Warrant Officer was Terry Roberts, who saw the light and became Mr. Roberts of Swindon,  to be replaced by the short Italian speaking Flt.Sgt. who had been promoted to Warrant Officer, George Lynes.

I had been on A-Shift for 6 months when PMC made a mistake, as I hadn't saved enough tokens from my cornflake packets, and sent me a blue letter saying that I was to be promoted to Cpl. I was promoted 6 months later in May 1990. This came just at the right time, as I was getting married in July 1990, and the extra money helped.

Whilst I was on my honeymoon, a bloke called Hussein decided he wanted to see what Kuwait was like as a holiday destination.  I got back to work to find that the RAF had started the Operation Granby deployment without me.  A rather frantic 4 months followed, although  I did manage to get Christmas and Boxing days off.

There was a payback though; MAMS Ops had asked the shifts to supply 3 men to go to the Gulf on the 5th of January for a month (while I was away I had apparently "volunteered").

My month started on January 5th and ended on March 25th!  I Spent the whole time at Riyadh, apart from a quick trip to Ali Al Salem to recover the RAF Regiment NBC team. Tornadoes and other allied aircraft had visited the airfield. The HAS (Hardened Aircraft Shelter - supposedly bombproof) all had neat holes in the roofs. In 1998, Ali Al Salem became the base for Tornadoes during Operation Desert Fox - the bombing of Iraq.

After I got back I stayed on A-shift until the 1st August 1993, when I was allowed back on Mobile by my wife and son.  He had been born on the 29th December 1991 (Yes! 9 months and 4 days after I got back from the Gulf!!).

This time I was put on November team.  I spent exactly 1 year on Mobile this time. In that time I was twice sent to Italy for a month long detachment. Gio Del Colle, which was the base for Jaguars supporting the forces in Bosnia, and Ancona for the Sarejevo airlift.

On the 2nd of August 1994, PMC decided that I had worked hard enough, and needed another holiday. I was posted to Gibraltar, and had an excellent 3 years there.

On returning to the UK, it was back to Lyneham yet again and to Day Pax where I have remained.

Finally a confession for all those Muppets who took the mobile course between 1981 and 1984. These courses were subjected to intruder attacks during their field training.  Kev Timms from MAMS Training was an instructor with the Chippenham ATC and trained the cadets to act as intruders - the infamous Timms Commandos.  Well, I was one of them!
I joined the RAF on the 31st of January 1984 at Bristol CIO. After Swinderby, I arrived at the Movements School to be greeted by the Instructors, Sgt. Bruce Oram and Cpl. John Conduit for the operators course. 

I managed to scrape through the course and was posted to B-Shift, UKMAMS in June of 1984.  There I stayed until December 1986, when I passed the Mobile course and was put on Hotel team.  B-Shift had only put me on the Mobile course in order for me to learn to drive forklifts!

To begin with I was on the supplementary team - November or Papa.  My first task was a standby job to Watisham to offload a UAE Hercules. It was carrying missiles, Sidewinders, I think. After the offload, which the aircrew completed for us, we flew with our Landrover back to Lyneham. That was an eye-opener for this first time Muppet; only 2 strops on the Rover, and no restraint on the mountain of crew bags, which promptly fell over on takeoff!

I had just settled in to Mobile and had completed 3 or 4 jobs when PMC sent me to Mount Pleasant in the Falkland Islands.  I had an excellent 4 months, the other movers making the tour: Tony Dunphy,  Jim Muir, Nip Betts, Dave Salmon, Tim Pyne and Colin Menmuir, to mention but a few.