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53NIMROD OPERATIONS AT ASCENSION ISLANDGroup Captain David PierceDavid Pierce joined the RAF in 1957. Trained asan AEO, he flew Shackletons with Nos 120, 206and 201 Sqns before helping to introduce theNimrod era by setting up the Maritime AcousticAnalysis Unit at Kinloss in 1969. Subsequent toursincluded two Nimrod flying appointments, a stintwith the RCAF on the Argus and on the AirAttach%u00e9%u2019s staff in Washington. He left the Service,as SRAFO Plymouth, in 1992 and he currentlyworks as a CAB volunteer in Scotland.In April 1982, I was OC Ops Support Squadron at Kinloss, a postsometimes referred to as the %u2018Prince of Darkness%u2019, and we had just cometo the end of eight week%u2019s continuous covert operations against someSoviet nuclear submarines operating in the north-east Atlantic. So on 1April, you could say we in Ops were already like coiled springs, but wewere badly in need of some lubrication.I arrived at Ascension in early May to run the Nimrod Support Cellcourtesy of the second MR2 with a refuelling capability. With the fuelpipe leading from a hatch in the cockpit, down along the fuselage floorand disappearing somewhere in the bomb bay area, the installationcertainly deserved its description of being %u2018robust but inelegant%u2019. But itworked, and it was a credit to the team that put the idea into practice insuch a short time.I had a small team of two flight lieutenant air controllers who lookedafter the briefings and two airmen aircrew (MAEOps/SNCOs) who dealtwith intelligence, EW and crew debriefs. There had been a constantturnover of staff in the Support Cell during the first month and my firstdecision was to stay for at least two months myself and for the rest tostay at least four weeks before changeover. This brought someimmediate continuity of experience and helped to improve liaison withVictor Ops and main Ops at Nose Hangar.A little later we were augmented by a flight lieutenant Nimrodnavigator, Tony Thomas, who brought some much needed Nimrod flightplanning experience to Tanker Ops and he did wonders to smooth theinevitable problems that cropped up as we of the kipper fleet adjusted to