Bravo Zulu wrote:
When the five of us got to the Plaas, the officers had organised an evening function at the officer’s pub to welcome us - it appeared that the stories had been exaggerated. All was collegial until a Commandant (the guy who played hooker for ADAG and who stood on Lt Cox's neck on another social occasion?) threw a brandy al. and coke into a fellow COs face, which was a signal for the real entertainment to begin.
We carried on training at 120 SQN, with more focus on our role as future leaders of a missile unit made up of 1 AU and 2 FUs. Life was pretty boring by day. Major Bonsai Baobab (I forget his real name) was in charge at 120 with 2 PF LTs, Pelser and another guy. A lot of shit got spoken on the tax payers’ money. Tea at the officer’s mess each morning was a lottery for a candidate officer – it all depended on the mood of the senior officers. The Colonel (?) was a decent guy. Apart from the Cactus people, there was the blonde major that did bodybuilding and always had a cold (he was paraat, but a nice guy), the Commandant who liked assaulting looties and a few others I can’t remember.
An ADAG legend was Sergeant Major Lubbe. He was an enormous guy with huge hands and knew a lot about Cactus. He also flattened the better part of 2 bottles of Squadron rum on a daily basis. He was a bit scary but good value to chat to; he always nominated a troop to make sure he got back to his bed. Another legend who was respected by all was Sergeant Major Skippy Scheepers, who had his face badly burnt rescuing people from a burning chopper/plane.
Hah, the bugger who stood on Craig Cox's(RIP) neck and almost snapped him in half at Rundu is most probably Chris Gerber, he always stuffed us around. He was a Major during my time on the farm/border.
Gavin Pelser, sheesh first met Gavin when we were just out of school and I had come up from Cape Town for selection testing, he was my transport driving the Renault 5(I think) without a license! I believe he is still in the SAAF as a Lt Col somewhere. He was often referred to, in his absence, as Lt Pielseer by the NCO's. Good lad he was and rather a good rugby fullback.
Zoff Lubbe, man he could drink. The one night, make that every night, at Rundu he was drinking Sparberry and Rum and the next morning it looked like someone had had there throat slit where he puked. I am impressed that he became a WO, but he was sharp on the Cactus system.
The blond major must be Nic van Eeden, he was the OC of 120 Sqn just before I left for SAC, I am sure Johan Petzer and Andre Robinson must also have been PF Lt's at 120 at this time
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