I was privileged to serve for thirteen months between April 69 and May 70 on detachment at RAF Salalah in the Dhofar provence of what was then known as Muscat and Oman.

This was the best posting of my short RAF service.

It was at the start of one of the UK’s little known wars which ran between 1969 and 1976.

The General Service Medal (GSM) for active service in Dhofar is actually one of the very rarest issued.

The Wikipedia entry on the rebellion puts the overall death toll of the conflict at around 10,000.

Some forty years later I discovered that others who had served at this remote Gulf outpost at that time were actively on the web hoping to make contact with the people they had known there. The websites targeted at ex military personnel are commercial and restrict the size and availability of photographs but in truth there were very few on the web of Salalah, the RAF airbase or the wider conflict from the 1969/70 period.

So, I have published these Salalah pages to share the photos and brief memories I and others have still managed to retain in the hope that they may now be of value to the others who served there.

I cannot help but retain the genuine good nature and humour of my many colleagues who put up with doing our bit for Queen, Country and the Sultan. It has served me well throughout life.

The were some hysterically funny moments for us but they can be more accurately conveyed by others more sufficiently gifted to do it.

Alan Cooper

The first person I was able to establish contact with was Alan who I managed to track down via LinkedIn™. He was (and probably still is) a keen photographer and his many pictures and recollections are prominently featured on this site. His contributions enormously lend both substance and credibility to this project.

I am grateful to others who have corresponded with me, filled in the details here and there and promised photos that I hope can eventually be found and included.

Ed Featherstone

What are the odds - 45 years later on a tiny island in the Atlantic - of meeting up with somebody who was in Salalah at the same time, was the same age and has interesting accounts of the special operations he was involved in. His accounts (and his photographs hopefully) are just too good to pass up. So RAF types will just have to “deal with it” because  Ed was with the Royal Navy.

I am very grateful to Ed for sharing his experiences on these pages.

I will be happy to include and credit any reasonable submissions from others who served in Salalah around that time so we can build up a more comprehensive photographic and commentary record for those who still value the experiences we shared. 

There are some really excellent sites and organisations that carry information on the RAF Station, the region, the history of the wider conflict etc but here we concentrate on the 60 or so none flying penguins, the Airworks guys, the special forces, the contracted SOAF pilots and civilians that the station comprised of in the 1969 and early 1970 era.

Many followed us there, but on much shorter detachments and lived in a much better protected camp environment than we ever enjoyed. Ours was at the sharp end and we had to depend on each other to look after ourselves.

If you served in RAF Salalah and need to acquire a photo or even better, to submit some to be included, please contact me via the link provided.

Site updated March 2017

tombramley@mac.com

RAF Salalah - September 1969 to October 1970

Alan Cooper

After leaving Worle Community School in Weston-super-Mare aged 16, I joined the RAF in September 1963 and spent 3 years at No1 Radio School RAF Locking as an Aircraft Apprentice in the 105th Entry.

Following passing out as Junior Technician (J/T) Radar Fitter I was posted to RAF Lyneham and worked in GRSF (Ground Radio Servicing Flight) on the AR1 and other approach radars.

Six months into that tour and after a 20 month courtship, I married Pauline and 2 years later saw the birth of our first son Stuart in 1969.

I was following the old adage about “Never Volunteer”; I thought I would happily spent my 12 year engagement at RAF Lyneham in a comfortable rut as a J/T working on the airfield.

RAF Records had other ideas and despite a six month deferment due to the imminent birth of Stuart, almost three years to the day from arriving at Lyneham, I was posted to RAF Salalah on a 13 month unaccompanied tour.

So in September 1969 I left my young wife Pauline and 5 month old Stuart in the capable hands of my parents and flew out from Lyneham in a Britannia (Whispering Giant) to RAF Muharraq (Bahrain) and then by Argosy (Whistling Tit) from there to Sharjah via Masirah to eventually land on the Moon; or at least that’s what RAF Salalah looked like to me at first sight.

On walking down the steps of the Argosy I was greeted by a very happy Corporal; the very Scottish Jim Smith. Jim shook me warmly by the hand and informed me he had been detached to Salalah from Muharraq to fill the posting gap caused by my deferment and he would be leaving on the Argosy after it was refuelled.

(I was to later meet Jim at RAF Buchan where we were both Sergeant Shift Supervisors)

We spent the next hour in the air transit lounge chatting and me being introduced to others including the Radar Sergeant in charge of GRSF Len Hodby. Len and I made up the Radar Section and he would become very important in kick starting my RAF career.

In a just over a week it would be 1 October 1969 and what would become the start of the, yet to be authorized, qualifying period for the Dhofar GSM and a very interesting and formative tour.

February 22 2014

Learn more about my career since leaving the RAF in 1981 at my LinkedIn™ page

http://www.linkedin.com/in/alanrcooper

alan.r.cooper@gmail.com

Read on by selecting Alan’s Info link at the top of this page.

© The Tons Association

The Unofficial War in Oman - Recollections from 1969 -1970 - Updated 16th May 2014

Ed Featherstone

I had joined HMS Yarnton, a coastal minesweeper, in late August 1969 for a tour of duty lasting 12 months (unaccompanied if you were married) with two weeks leave in UK in the middle.

As the Sub Lieutenant on board I was responsible for navigation and watchkeeping, although I was still to be awarded my Bridge Watchkeeping Ticket and my Ocean Navigation Certificate.

Without those two pieces of paper I would not be promoted to Lieutenant and I would be “withdrawn from training” after having already served almost 5 years. So, no pressure then...............

February 2014

Read on by selecting Ed’s Unofficial War in Oman and Info links at the top of this page.

Ray Kane updated June 2014

Commissioned into the British Army in 1965, Ray Kane served in Germany and Libya before joining the Omani Army as a Contract Officer. Commissioned as a captain then promoted major within 18 months, Ray Kane served for two years as Red Company Commander, Desert Regiment, in the Dhofar War. He led the Red Company palace assault group that seized Sultan Said bin Taimur al-Busaidi on 23 July 1970, in the coup d’état that started Oman’s renaissance, and in which Ray Kane was wounded by pistol-fire in the leg.

Leaving Red Company in 1972, Ray Kane next commanded Firqa Forces – tribesmen irregulars, mostly ex-enemy. He was “sacked on-the-spot”, and quite rightly too, in Kane’s opinion, by Colonel Mike “Oddjob” Harvey in May 1972, after shooting-up the RAF Salalah (Dhofar) Officers’ Mess and its open-air cinema.

Asked by friends if he had been drunk, mad or both Ray Kane replied:
‘Neither, I did it for the Craic.’

Other areas can be selected from the top of each page

Singapore & Gan - Photographs and recollections from All

Other Contributors - Photographs and recollections updated Feb 28 2014

Cpl Paul Brabbins Army Signals RAF Salalah 1969/70

Warrant Officer John Reed RAF Salalah 1969/70

Barney Wragg RAF Salalah 1970

Chief Technician Geoffrey Jerman RAF Salalah 1968/69

Sgt Brian Henderson RAF Salalah October 68 - September 69

Kevin Kearney RAF Salalah 1968/69

Junior Technician James Saunders RAF Salalah 1969/1970

Warrant Officer Roy Douthwaite RAF Salalah June 1968 - July 1969

Alistair Attwell - Pictures of Mirbat from 2007

Sgt Alan Cooper and SAC Tom Bramley RAF Salalah 1969/70

“More about information” with links to their other albums - All

updated Feb 23 2014

Links Page - Essential links

Oman - Information and links page

Further Reading - New Book Coup D’état Oman by Ray Kane updated June 2014

- visit Further Reading  section at top of this page for prologue to book.

The Small Print...

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