A Transatlantic Journey

Gap year commissions in the army have changed over the past forty years. Now you have an eight week course at Sandhurst, serve for almost a year and get paid £18,000 a year. When I did one in 1973 it was a bit different.

A three week course at Sandhurst, a week or so at the Guards Depot in Pirbright, a few days at Caterham Barracks then off to the sunny Caribbean on £1,200 a year. The adjutant, almost as an afterthought asked me if I had a passport. Of course, a fine green one with a gold Irish harp. Consternation ensued. If you serve in the British army you travel on a British passport. I was driven to the Home Office in Croydon where I was given my first British passport, just in time to get to Brize Norton the following morning for the RAF flight to Belize. Although it was a cold March day I wore thin clothes in anticipation of sunny climes ahead. There was nobody from my regiment on the flight, indeed I thought them a rum bunch. It turned out that they were being sent to entertain the troops in Belize. I cannot imagine that they relished the prospect of a long dry flight but maybe they had stashed some liquid nourishment away. Indeed, I have a hazy recollection of them sharing some with me.

The ‘plane was a Hercules with  makeshift seats bolted to the floor and we shared the fuselage with some cargo. I am pleased to have crossed the Atlantic in a propellor driven aircraft.

I was less pleased when I heard the itinerary. First stop, an overnight stay, was in Gander, Newfoundland. We nearly couldn’t land because there was so much snow banked up beside the runway. It was extremely cold and I was not appropriately clad. I spent the evening in my room watching Carousel on a small black and white TV.

The next morning we re-embarked for Bemuda, to re-fuel, and then on to Belize. While we were in the air the news that the Governor, Richard Sharples, and his ADC had been assassinated the previous night came through and we diverted to the Bahamas. We landed in Belize at about teatime, or more likely drinks time. It was 11th March so I was in good time for St Patrick’s Day.

Here are the Irish Guards in Northern Ireland in 2012.  This would have been out of the question in 1973.