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34and night) was exacerbating aircrew fatigue and thereby increasing therisk of accidents significantly. I was asked to find some mobile airconditioned/sound-proofed accommodation, complete with ablutions andkitchens. As it happened, the USAF had just exercised their collapsible%u2018Concertina City%u2019 units in the Middle East and were quite pleased withthe results. I knew that the kits were stored at Holloman AFB, NewMexico, and that they had been designed to fit neatly into %u2018X%u2019 number ofC-141s.I presented myself to the USAF Vice-Chief (I think that was GeneralBob Mathis at the time) and was pointed at a bright young staff colonelfor the solution to my problem (Mike Ryan; later the USAF Chief ofStaff). Discussion with him revealed that %u2018Concertina City%u2019 came in%u2018500-man modules%u2019. Would that do? I pleaded economies of scale andasked if I could have a third of a module. The problem with that was thatthe C-141 loads were pre-packaged; the 500-man kitchen might be in thesecond aircraft. I made an instant decision that we would take a third of amodule and whatever that brought.A couple of telephone calls later, Mike put his hand over themouthpiece and said, %u2018You are sure you want these, aren%u2019t you? If thereis any doubt, speak now, because when I put this %u2018phone down they%u2019removing!%u2019 I told him to go ahead, and then dashed back to the embassy,where I called the MOD in London with the news that theaccommodation was on its way. The rear-admiral on the other end at thattime was known to be a bit eccentric, and he said, %u2018Good! But don%u2019tbother with the kitchen. If there is one, you must take it out!%u2019 I am afraidI told him that he must be grateful for what he got, kitchen or not, but hewent on yelling that I must stop it, even though by then it was probablyrolling down the runway at Holloman. I subsequently heard that it was avery good kitchen and that the chaps on Ascension were very glad to seeit. In fact they were glad to see the whole thing. It was a boon and ablessing.My largest acquisition came once it was certain that our efforts on theFalklands would be crowned by success. It became apparent that wewere going to need to improve Port Stanley airfield substantially once itwas captured, so I went to the Pentagon to see J3(Operations), Lt GenPhillip Gast, USAF, and RAdm Bob Hilton. They were used to myforays by this time, but even they blanched a bit when I said I wanted tobuy an airfield. I went into some detail about needing 7000 feet of