No. 40 Gulf War queries

[Dave Homewood]

I have two things to ask about the Gulf War operations of No. 40 Squadron Hercules.

First up, after the war was over, the CO of 40, Wg Comm Bob Henderson. did a tour of bases where he gave a lecture which you could get time off work to go and see. I went, and basically it was him describing the entire tour and war from his point of view, backed up by a really incredible set of slides that he'd taken throughout the war and afterwards.

I have it in my head that he said he hoped to write a book and publish his wonderful photos and memories. Did he ever do so? Does anyone know?

The second thing is, I heard an interesting story (and it may actually have been in the lecture mentioned above but iI can't recall). The story was that the American author PJ O'Rourke, (who was a very sarcastic political humourist known basically for travelling the world and slagging off all he saw with pointed witicisms), was in the Gulf covering the war for some newspaper.

He apparently wanted very much to fly into the war zone for a look, something journos were not allowed to do. He had approached all the US squadrons and RAF, etc and been turned down. However in the end he asked the RNZAF. I think the story went that the pilot was a fan of O'Rourke's books so said he could fly with them, so long as he didn't mention it to anyone, and no connection would be made to the RNZAF or the crew, etc.

He agreed. So they took him on a flight where they were flying to the front lines with a supply load, and they did some hairy stuff like low level, etc. thinking it'd give him a thrill.

Next thing he apparently broke the agreement and wrote an article all about it, totally slagging off the RNZAF and accusing them of dangerous flying, endangering civil passengers, etc.

There was some hell to pay, so the story went, and the crew got in very hot water. I recall people saying what a git he was, after they'd risked punishment by giving him the ride he';d desired and then turned it around on them, making the RNZAF look really bad.

Did anyone else hear this? Was it true? If so, has anyone got a copy of the article he wrote? Was it in a newspaper or in his book he wrote about the war?

[phil82]

Was it true? I very much doubt it. The RNZAF aircraft were tasked by the RAF, in fact it was mentioned in General Sir Peter de la Billiere's book "Storm Command" [he was 2i/c of Desert Storm] that when he went forward at the end of hostilities , it was on an RNZAF Herc which was the 'first cab off the rank' so to speak.

Quote: "I myself flew in on the morning of 1 March.....we flew in one of the Hercules transports loaned to the United Kingdom [yeah, right!] by the Royal New Zealand Air Force....as we touched down, our crew streamed a Kiwi flag from the windows of the cockpit, and I felt glad to have flown in with such spirited performers".

[mumbles]

Cribbed from 'Give War A Chance' by P J O'Rourke.

"I hitched a ride back to Saudi Arabia [from Kuwait] on a New Zealand Air Force C-130. The members of the flight crew were all in their twenties and filled with leftover joy of combat. They let me stand on the flightdeck as they brought their 132-foot wingspan, 100,000 pounds of an airplane down to a hundred feet and began chasing camels and goats across the desert at 300 miles an hour. The scattered tamarisk bushes were coming at us like uncountable fastballs in a batting cage nightmare. The camels gave out pretty quick but the billies and nannies and kids were insoired to remarkable sprints of terror - turbo goats. The vast destitution of the Dahna Sands spread out in an infinity around us. 'Wall-to-wall f**k all, eh?' shouted the Kiwi pilot. He and his crew mates had smiles as wide as their skulls. This was the stuff that made it all worthwhile, to be in absolute charge of 17,200 horsepower, to have, gripped in your fists, the whole might of science, of industry, of civilisations mastery of the world - our civilisations mastery of this world. 'HOOOOO-AH' as the Gulf troops say.
"We popped over the top of a little ridge, and there was a Bedouin camp on the other side. I watched a boy about nine or ten years old come running out from one of the goat hair tents. We were so close I could see his expression - thrill and fear and awe and wonder combined. His whole life he'll remember the moment that sky-blackening, air-mauling, thunder-engined steel firmament of war crossed his face. And I hope all his bellicose, fanatical, senseless, quarrel-mongering neighbours - from Tel Aviv to Khartoum, from Tripoli to Tehran - remember it too"

O'Rourke was sent to Saudi Arabia by ABC radio, but the articles from there were originally published in Rolling Stone.

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Sam. Well, that's fairly close to the story i rememebr hearing, and I can sort of see why it may have got the crew into hot water. It sounds like one hell of a ride though!

[phil82]

That's hardly "highly critical" of the RNZAF; "shagging off passengers etc" Besides, low-flying was the norm in Desert Storm.

[phil]

It doesn't sound much different to what they still do all the time here in NZ.

Not so much the camels and bedouin...and they are at 250 feet rather than 100 (well he says a hundred, who really knows, 250 feels extremely low in a big aircraft like the Herc).

[Dave Homewood]

phil82 said:

That's hardly "highly critical" of the RNZAF; "shagging off passengers etc" Besides, low-flying was the norm in Desert Storm.

Well no, but then I never said "highly critical" nor "shagging off passengers".

I was going by what I was told, some 15 years ago. What I heard was 40 Squadron were not happy with the author because of his breach of trust and getting he crew into hot water. That's all I knew and wanted to know more, ie whether it was true.

You know how Air Force rumours spread around the bases, and sometimes get embellished along the way.

At least I now know the ride did happen (something you doubted) and it was good to read the passage from his book.

[phil82]

I know they weren't your words Dave.

Sam is my son by the way!