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42overlook the needs of our hosts who went out of their way to assist inany way they could. Their knowledge and experience of managing theairfield proved invaluable and greatly speeded the bedding-in process.The tempo of the build up together with the frequency of helicopter andfixed-wing movements for an airfield manned for only 285 a year caughtthe residents by surprise. The Pan Am air traffic controllers (there wereonly two for the first month) did a magnificent job; on one day in lateApril they recorded over 500 movements making Wideawake one of thebusiest, if not the busiest, airfield in the world. Frequent, sometimeshourly, meetings kept relations on an even keel. On an alreadyovercrowded parking apron, the unannounced arrival of a military orcivil aircraft caused consternation and a rapid reshuffling of airframes onthe parking apron to make room for the new arrival. Specialarrangements were needed to cope with a visiting USAF C-5 aircraft; theVictor tankers were jigsawed together in a corner of the pan creating theimpression of a junkyard. Our hosts were not at war and, until AlexanderHaig%u2019s efforts at mediation ceased around 24 April, some practices suchas the %u2018hot refuelling%u2019 of helicopters (refuelling with engines running)were prohibited on safety grounds. This restriction slowed thetranshipment of personnel and materiel from the airhead to ships of thetask force. Once shuttle diplomacy ended we were left to our owndevices much to the relief of the helicopter operators.In summary, with the augmentation of existing facilities and theoutstanding co-operation of the resident population, Ascensionsuccessfully met the logistic and administrative challenges posed inproviding support for the operational forces deployed to the island and inthe South Atlantic.AIR-TO-AIR REFUELLINGFour Victor tankers landed at Wideawake on 18 April and by thefollowing day the number had risen to nine. Initially these were the onlyimmediately available aircraft capable of penetrating the sea areasaround South Georgia and the Falklands. Three Maritime RadarReconnaissance (MRR) missions were flown by the Victors on 19, 22and 24 April. Once the aircraft reached the task area it had insufficientfuel to complete the reconnaissance and recover to Ascension so it wasplanned to return via a rendezvous (RV) abeam Rio de Janeiro,positioned to provide a suitable diversion airfield should either the RV or