Ray Evans - Cultural Revolution, Iran

The next trip of note was a detachment to Bahrain. All very hush hush until we got there. The only accommodation they could find for us two crews was in a hotel run by a couple of Lebanese brothers. It was brand new, not really fully operational, so I was asked to have a look at the internal radio system and PA. After a little while I managed to tune all the five receivers to different frequencies (the BBC World Service being put on Channel 1!) for the five channel selector in all the rooms and tested the PA putting this on as background. Well impressed, the brothers offered me a job on the spot! When I declined, it was replaced by free beer as long as we stayed! Not a bad reward for a couple of hours work!

The Captain, Andy Potter, and myself, together with the navigator and the other crew were taken down to the British Embassy for a briefing on what we were doing there. It turned out we were to evacuate British nationals from various airfields and air strips around Iran, whilst the country was in turmoil from the Shah’s deposition by the Ayatollah Homeini. We were issued with 9mm pistols and ammunition for our own protection and only to be used in self defence!. The brief was very basic, a list of airfields and times to be there, and if they were waving, land and pick them up, if they were pointing anything that looked like guns...leg it! The first run was to an airfield called Majid Sulieman to pick up 50 plus adults and dependants.

Waiting to be evacuated from Majid Sulieman

We departed Bahrain climbed to 10,000 feet and headed for the Iranian border. As we crossed the border we dropped down to 500 feet to avoid their radar. After an hour we saw the airfield and sure enough there were people waving. As we landed a very British voice came over the radio telling us to get a move on as there were “technicals” heading our way. (technicals were Land Rover type vehicles, with guns and cannons mounted on them). The passengers were hustled on board and we took off smartly, staying low level until we hit the Bahrain border, climbed up to 10,000 feet and called for landing clearance. Then the fun started.

One of the children on board had smuggled a parrot in their luggage which made itself known to customs and a couple of other passengers had dual nationality causing a few problems!. We left the Defence attaché to sort this out and went through the crew exit setting of all kinds of alarms. Security rushed over and of course we were all carrying 9mm pistols! It was then decided we would leave the pistols on the aircraft in a locked safe whilst we were in Bahrain!

We had noticed that we were losing liquid oxygen during the flight and there wasn’t any liquid oxygen in Bahrain so had a quick shuttle down to Thumwrait in Oman to pick some up. This proved to be an ongoing problem, which however meant we did not miss a ground meal entitlement to our allowances, every day! Next day, off to Ahwaz via Thumrait another load of ex-pats, again a British voice on the radio giving us passenger details. This was quite a large regional airport which was completely deserted apart from ourselves. No problems with customs this time back at Bahrain. I had word during this detachment that one of our other squadron crews was on its way through from the Far East having been away for six weeks and I knew it was coming up with a friend of mine, the Loadmaster, Bert Desmond’s, birthday. I arranged a cake with our Lebanese hosts and got both crews organised to meet up at their other restaurant as a prearranged treat. Great fun especially when the cake was wheeled in after the main course to the usual song!. “I’ll get you Evans,” Bert said! He did too, several years later as a Hercules Captain, it was just coming past midnight after we had taken off from Gander, Newfoundland, the night before my birthday. There was a nudge on my left shoulder, Bert was there with a plate of apple pie and ice cream with a lit candle stuck in it!

Some very happy campers!

The day after the birthday party, the hotel had run out of beer, so Bert suggested we get a taxi out to the American navy base at Dufair. We were allowed onto the base by showing our ID cards and went to the base exchange store to buy our beer. The cashier suggested it would be better to buy the beer in the recreation hall around the corner. As we waited at the counter Bert spotted a row of dartboards across one wall of the room. Bert said, “Fancy a game Ray”, “Of course” was the reply. We were playing a standard UK game of 301, double off, double finish much to the surprise of some navy personnel who gathered to watch us, then challenged us to a match, several games later, and several beers I might add, we hadn’t lost a game and the stakes were upped to a case of beer instead of a round of drinks each game! Still we could not lose even though several more beers had been drunk. Eventually a senior petty officer came up to find out what the uproar was all about and threw us out, fortunately with our winnings, eight cases of beer! Back to the hotel feeling no pain, for another party to celebrate our winnings!.

Our last trip out of Bahrain into Iran was a real classic gotcha! The briefing was that we had to land at Tehran international on the parallel taxiway to the perimeter fence and be there at a specific time with the ramp and door open at the rear of the aircraft. How we got there was left to our initiative! After looking at the airfield plan we decided we would overfly the airfield at 5000, feet declare an emergency and land with one engine shut down ready for a quick restart. Our brief was that the airfield was in the hands of the cultural revolutionaries but it was still open, after a fashion. We got airborne and giving my best impression of a panicking pilot landed, despite Air traffic shouting repeatedly on the radio, “the airfield is closed”, on the parallel taxy way. After turning around and restarting the engine the load master shouted the fence is down and about 25 scruffy, smelly, Arabian dressed individuals rushed on board. One of them came up onto the flight deck and said, in a very familiar English voice,“better get moving as there are a couple of technicals on the way!” His exact words were somewhat more succinct! After a very short take off roll we got airborne and departed low level and I could see the vehicles running down the taxiway after us as we turned away! The guys we had picked up were obviously the special forces types who had been collecting and moving the ex pats to our pickup points. Once we were airborne, the first thing they asked was,”got any food mate?” We had the usual sandwich boxes and the load master said he thought that they would eat the boxes as well, the food disappeared so quickly! Yet another party that night as the SF (Special Forces) guys were staying in the same hotel.