IAIN BOWEN'S STORY Part 3

PTS also went to Kariba to fix up the Air Force chalets there. I went with Frank and Trevor once with some diving gear and he retrieved someone's outboard motor that had fallen off the back of a boat. Another time, Mike and I and some guy from the dog section, or security of some sort, took a load of timber up there to the chalets for renovations in an Air Force RL.

On the return trip, grinding our way up the escarpment from Kariba to Makuti, it was as hot as the hinges of hell. Mike was driving and I was in the front passenger seat with the other guy in the back as 'tail gunner'. We had the windscreen windows up to get a bit of a breeze through the cab. As we ground around a corner, there was this sign post so I upped it with Mike’s Uzi SMG that he had as his weapon.

I let go the whole mag and there was this neat line of hot doppies that arched across the cab and landed on Mike. Several of them went down his open shirt with the ensuing yelps and carry on as he tried to get them out. This resulted in the truck nearly going off the road and the poor fellow in the back convinced we were under attack. It was a good job we did stay on the road as there was a fair drop down the right hand side.

Mike stopped the truck and we got out to inspect my handy work, the guy in the back leaped out and hid under the rear wheels of the RL with his Uzi. I, being Army trained, had an FN. I liked firepower. Mike and I just roared with laughter and swapped around so Mike could 'ventilate' a few signs further up the road. The other guy just thought we were nuts, but then most of the blue jobs thought the PJIs were soft in the head!

Another time Mike and I took a truck load of convicts to the chalets to do some work. We had several African prison service guards with us. As we neared the chalets, a Kudu jumped out. At first I just caught the movement so swung up the FN out of habit, then realised it was a Kudu. The guards said 'shoot it boss, shoot it' so I did. The convicts leaped out of the truck and had it hidden in the back in a flash. Once at the camp the guards organised for it to be skinned and cut up, and for the next few days we dined on Kudu, sudza and veggies.

 Mike went into the African township that was on the left hand side before you went up to the heights, with one of the guards and they came back with a drum of chabuku (a local beer) and we all proceeded to have a great time. One of the convicts was a great cook and did the meat just right.

I can't remember what we were supposed to make or fix up at the chalets, but the guards spent most of the time swimming.  The tame convicts just looked forward to the evenings when they would dine on Kudu and sudza and wash it down with a jam tin of chabuku. Why would you want to escape? When the week was over, I can assure you they did not want to leave.

This photograph shows the PTS staff about Sept 1974 L to R Kevin Milligan, Iain Bowen Derek de Kock Mike Wiltshire, Ralph Moore, John Boynton, Dennis Buchan, Frank Hales  and mascot David Bar Bear.
                                                                              

One day we went off to Thornhill for a demo jump during an air show they were putting on. At the briefing the hunter pilots stated, 'Don't forget, we are approaching the airfield at 10 miles a minute'! At 1521hrs on the dot, we went out at 8000ft with smoke, fell together for a few seconds, then turned and tracked away as hard as we could. From the ground it looked great; however, I was tracking away, down-wind, so was way off target when I pulled my ripcord.

I was looking around, at about 1500ft, when a hunter jet just roared under me as he started his demo. With that I just kept going and landed in a paddock and a kind farmer gave me a lift back to the airfield. When I arrived back everyone was talking about how we were the show stoppers. The crowd had never seen free fall done with smoke and fast tracking. In fact in those days, most people had never even seen sky diving!

September 6^th, 1973 we did the high one. On oxygen, at 28,000 feet, I think that was ASL. 4 of us went out of 3707. The pilot, Flt. Lt. Holshausen, said the aircraft was flying, 'like on a knife edge'. It just wouldn't go any higher without literally stalling. It was cold up there. We were well rugged up, but as soon as my face hit the slipstream I think my eyes just about froze open. There is nothing quite like a minute and a half of free fall. The station doctor was not happy that he was not consulted about this jump.

Then there was the time Ralph and Charlie painted the rat on the side of the panhard 60's armoured cars that had moved in beside PTS. There was an up-roar over that, but they actually liked it and left them on and even painted some of their other vehicles after that!

By now the squadron was well engaged in Porkers (still called OP Hurricane). We were often dropping them at night into Mozambique. The SAS guys were getting at me all the time to transfer back to the squadron as they were short of NCOs and troops in general. It was not long before I started to feel the pull back to the old unit.

In late 1974 I submitted my request to return to the SAS. This was eventually granted, and in February 1975 I returned to the SAS. It is interesting to note that during my first year in PTS, my log book would show an average of 12 entries a month. By the end of 1974 I was averaging 28 entries a month. In the 3 years and 5 months I had been in PTS, it sure had become very busy.

Although I was now back in the squadron, I still jumped whenever I could, and my logbook shows I would tag onto basic and FF courses and still managed a good jump rate. My log book also shows I was still doing despatching and FF afterwards. By July 1975 entries start to show John Early was on some of the loads.

Being a PJI, and member of the PTS, I regard myself as being one of the luckiest people alive. The people who worked there were some of the most professional and dedicated men I have had the good fortune to know.

In particular the 'Boss', Derek de Kock was one of the greatest. The Boss proved that tactical night free fall was a viable method of inserting Special Forces into hostile neighbouring African countries in numbers never done before and never done anywhere in the world since. If you look back in the context of warfare, he is one of the best tacticians I have ever known. (Yes that's you Boss.)

 Derek’s note: Thank you for the compliment. PTS was, indeed, a great team, and it was an honour and a privilege to lead a group of such dedicated, professional, and talented men. It was definitely a team effort.