Hms Bulwark Not Good Enough Anymore

[retrocop]

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/four-migrant-boats-land-british-raf-073713412.html#49nxC5p

Now the migrants go direct to the RAF for their flights to Europe.
This is a first. What little Sovereign territory we have has been invaded.
Where was the RAF Regiment and their Rapiers?

[douglas9401]

Absolutely farcical. Any raggedy-*** bod can now turn up and demand their rights while, as usual, the rest of us have to queue in an orderly fashion.

[anotheoldgit]

Sorry retrocop, posted my mention on the Cyprus incident before I noticed this.

Be interesting to see what they do with this lot.

[retrocop]

Mr aog
No problem.
Where were the "Rock Apes". I thought their main role was protecting our airfields and firefighting?

[anotheoldgit]

retrocop

/// Where were the "Rock Apes". I thought their main role was protecting our airfields and firefighting? ///

Too busy 'bulling up' for their next parade.

By the way I know you were in the police at some time, but have you also been in the RAF?

[Baldric]

Bouncer, for your edification

The RAF Regiment and its members are known within the RAF as 'The Regiment', 'Rock Apes' or 'Rocks'.

[Zacs-Master]

Imagine the headlines if our brave troops had thrown them back in the sea? I'm pretty sure the migrants had no idea there was an RAF base on the coast and were simply happy to reach the most southerly point of Cyprus.

[retrocop]

Mr aog
Not quite but near enough to have a healthy working knowledge of Squadron life and duties. :-)

[retrocop]

Should of got an RAF Rescue tender to tow them round the corner to Kyrenia! Almost back to where they started. :-)

[retrocop]

Mr aog
//Too busy 'bulling up' for their next parade. //

I think I saw the Queens Colour Squadron RAF Regiment welcoming Mr Xi and his wife at LHR yesterday.

[anotheoldgit]

retrocop

Yes who better than The RAF Air-Sea Rescue.

http://www.aviationmuseum.net/ImageLibrary/asrlogo.jpg

[anotheoldgit]

Zacs-Master

/// I'm pretty sure the migrants had no idea there was an RAF base on the coast and were simply happy to reach the most southerly point of Cyprus. ///

Surely you are not naive enough to think that, Zacs?

But we will see if more have the same idea.

[retrocop]

RAF Akrotiri is the Winter training and selection base for the Red Arrows. It also provides a base for bombing sorties into the Middle East.That must be the best kept secret then if these Arabs were oblivious to those give away clues that there might an RAF base there. Of course. They might not of been genuine refugees from the Middle East conflict but just economic chancers fom further afield, :-)

[anotheoldgit]

This from another report.

/// In 1998, a ramshackle fishing boat crammed with 75 migrants landed at Akrotiri. ///

/// Seventeen years on, some of them are still living on another British base on the island after repeated appeals for asylum in Britain were turned down. ///

/// The migrants who landed in Akrotiri in 1998 were mostly Iraqi and Syrian Kurds, who had given their life savings to people smugglers to ferry them from Lebanon to Italy. ///

/// But the boat's engine sputtered out and the Lebanese crew fled in an inflatable dinghy. ///

/// The migrants were moved from Akrotiri to Dhekelia, Britain's largest base on the island, where they were housed in rudimentary, former quarters for British service families that were due to be demolished. ///

/// In what was meant to be a temporary measure, they were provided with weekly welfare allowances but 17 years on, 21 of them remain on the base. ///

/// With children born there and family members who later joined them, they make up a group of 67. ///

And I wonder if all of them are still receiving their weekly welfare allowance?

[New Judge]

Extracts from an MoD statement:

"At the moment our key priority is ensuring everybody on board is safe and well and when we can release further details we will.”

Well it shouldn’t be. Their key priority should be ensuring the integrity of a key UK military base, establishing how it had been jeopardised and drawing up plans urgently to ensure it does not recur. A few years back I and a couple of friends were tootling round Portsmouth Harbour in a small day boat. We came a little too close to a moored Royal Navy Frigate. Within what seemed like seconds we had a Navy RIB alongside (with half a dozen armed personnel aboard) warning us in no uncertain terms to steer clear. What happened in Cyprus to allow rubber dinghies to approach a sensitive installation without challenge?

"We have had an agreement in place with the Republic of Cyprus since 2003 to ensure that the Cypriot authorities take responsibility in circumstances like this.”

Keep an eye out at RAF Brize Norton to see how much responsibility the Cypriots have taken for this incursion.

[New Judge]

"The RAF Regiment and its members are known within the RAF as 'The Regiment', 'Rock Apes' or 'Rocks'. "

And to some of the less well behaved erks, "The Snowdrops".

[retrocop]

Bouncer
Who are the "we" that called the RAF Regiment the Gibbons?

[anotheoldgit]

New Judge

/// And to some of the less well behaved erks, "The Snowdrops". ///

I think you might be getting mixed up with the RAF Police, so called because of their white topped service caps.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafcms/mediafiles/gallery/7235BFFB_1143_EC82_2ECECD0AE3D9D3F2/DPR-08-063%20(9).jpg

[New Judge]

Yes thanks for the correction, AOG.

It's a long time since I spent time on RAF establishments and my hazy memory told me that the RAF police were a branch of the RAF Regiment. But you are quite right - they are a separate entity (although they share their headquarters with The Regiment).