Life on the ‘Last Post’ frontline

WITH my family, I served with the RAF in Aden at the time depicted in the TV programme, The Last Post. I was a fighter pilot on No 43 Squadron flying Hunter GA 9 jet fighters in support of the Army. The locations and scenery in the TV series were pretty realistic, so full marks to the production company considering it was filmed in South Africa. Unlike most civilian and service people living in Aden, only the RAF aircrews and the Army on the ground knew what the mountains and scenery up country were like. I agree with Sue Weaver (Letters) about the lifestyle: we used the RAF’s own beach at Tarshyne, which was close to the airfield at Khormaksar. Apart from a few married quarters on camp, most families lived in five-storey blocks of flats on the main road connecting RAF Khormaksar and Steamer Point. When I arrived in Aden, it was relatively quiet, but the terrorism gradually increased. The word terrorist was never used. In those days, the enemy were called ‘dissidents’. XG 154, the Hunter jet in my photograph (above), was ‘my’ aircraft in 1964 — you can see from my name on it! It is on display in the RAF Museum at Hendon. Flt Lt ROGER WILKINS, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks.