The report on the
American contract that had done Mansour and myself so much good had been widely
talked about. So when Abu and I visited the supply squadron their training
control asked us if we could do a similar report for them, we checked with our
captain who was enthusiastic and gave us the go ahead. Abu had only just
started with me so it rested mainly on my shoulders but he was with me most of
the time hopefully learning his trade.
We acted as Mansour
and I had done previously, Abu talked to the Saudi trainees and I to the
American contractors. There was no one missing from the contract this time but
the discipline was appalling most of the work was being done by the contractors
as the trainees were absent. The personnel in the training control were so
frustrated that they had to let training slide or fabricate results, from the
training point of view it was a very unhappy ship. Naturally when we eventually
wrote our report we highlighted this failing which was from the top officer to
the lowest recruit. In our office Khan our redoubtable Pakistani read the
report which I felt was measured and fair. “Mr. Mike this will get you into big
trouble. You may be right but it is criticizing the Saudis they will cause you
trouble”. I felt it was right if we were ever going to get the stores personnel
trained to work properly someone needed to do something about it. (How young
and foolish was I and how old and wise was Khan)
Abu and I showed
the report to the new boss and went through it with him in detail explaining my
reasons for each criticism he was delighted and immediately circulated it to
the contractors and his Head Quarters. He phoned for an appointment with the
top officer in Supply, later on he, Abu and I went on to the meeting in the
officer’s office. We watched as our new boss went through the report (giving
credit to me) with the Prince who was the top officer in supply. The Prince
gravely nodded at each point without comment, when the boss had finished, he
thanked us for coming and we were dismissed.
Naturally the
report was actually fair as seen from the American contractor’s point of view
and they embraced it. At least it would allow them to do some training. Our
next event in the chain that was to develop was we had a visit from members of
the RSAF Riyadh Head Quarters together with their advisors and the report was
white washed and the Supply Squadron continued as before. Next our new boss was
replaced with a Major who was thought to be safe, Abu Garda was moved to
another office where he was totally bored, the American contractors training
manager was fired and I became in effect the new Majors secretary. I think I
was lucky to have been saved if somewhat emasculated. As it turned out it was a
job I grew to love.
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