The Air Force show
At the beginning of August, I left Rundu with Commandant Ferreira and an Ops Clerk to fly to Oshikati in the west, to prepare for Ops Chaka. I can’t be sure of the dates but I think that it was on this trip that we had a very entertaining morning at the big air force base in Oshikati. We had to get some admin done in the morning and then wait for the OC at the air base. He had gone through to the big army base half an hour’s drive away at Ondangwa for a briefing with the brass. We arrived there mid-morning and sought out some shade and idly watched the activity on the flight line. We soon noticed that they were preparing two Impala jet fighters, and sure enough, out swaggered two jet-jocks wearing their green g-suits and carrying their bone-dome helmets. They climbed up into their fighters, and the scream of the jet engines spooling up soon changed to that glorious, deep thunderous roar as they rapidly got airborne, heading north at treetop height under a full bomb load. Peace and quiet descended on the air base once more and we settled back to lounge around in our shady spot.
Half an hour later, we suddenly noticed Land Rovers skidding to a halt outside the Ops Room, with the drivers and passengers running into the prefab with much commotion and banging of doors. A few minutes later we saw a lone Impala land, and the pilot quickly ushered into the Ops Room. Not long after, a pair of Alouette gunships got airborne and headed north, followed by a Puma. Still not quite sure what was going on, but nevertheless enjoying the show, we once again settled back so as not to break into a sweat. About an hour later the Puma arrived back and offloaded a very unhappy looking jet-jock. With evident back problems, he was helped along and half carried into the Ops Room. By now we were sitting up and watching with great interest. We couldn’t help but see the humour in this … from a suave, swaggering jet jock to a very pained, limping fellow who had to have his bone-dome helmet carried for him!
Our OC arrived soon after and he was quickly ushered into the Ops Room. When he emerged a while later, he filled us in as to what had happened. The Impala had suffered a ‘flame-out’ on a bombing mission into Angola and the pilot had to eject. We were to join our recce teams at a base to the north of us, and go in with them to blow up the remains of the jet fighter. Suddenly it wasn’t so amusing anymore. Thankfully the plan was scrapped later that night. I am sure we would have been dropped straight into a very tight situation as the enemy were bound to have got to the crash site by then.