01 May 2022 - Weird Thoughts
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Written while listening to Tob play simf on Dubious Goals Committee.
Today a weird thought hit me. It is the 40th anniversary of the
Falklands conflict where the UK armed forces did something rather
unthinkable and win a conflict with no land bases near by. My Dad was
a surprise combatant. He was on HMS GLAMORGAN, a destroyer, as part of
his initial sea training as part of his engineering artificer
training. Unfortunately during that training, he was stuck on board as
the ship headed to the south Atlantic. As part of the 40th
anniversary, various social media accounts have been stating events
from each day. Today marked the 40th anniversary of my Dad first being
shot at. It is a weird thought for sure! HMS GLAMORGAN was sent
inshore to bombard Stanley airfield in broad daylight. The gas
turbines were shut down while bombarding the airfield. Suddenly a pair
of Mirage aircraft appeared and dropped bombs which thankfully missed
the stern of the vessel. The gas turbines were turned on and it is
thought that the smoke from the funnels made the aircraft think their
bombs had hit and leave the vessel alone. Unfortunately the luck ran
out and she was ultimately hit but was lucky enough to be the only
ship to have survived a hit from an exocet missile. So happy 40 years
of being a combat veteren I suppose. Told you it was a weird thought.
