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97HARRIER OPERATIONS - RAF G%u00dcTERSLOHAir Chief Marshal Sir Richard JohnsCommissioned from Cranwell in 1959, Sir Richardspent the next nine years flying Hunters and as aQFI on the Jet Provost and Gnat. In the 1970s and%u201880s he flew Harriers in Germany, first as OC 3Sqn and then as Station Commander at G%u00fctersloh,which also involved qualification on the Chinookand Puma. His senior appointments have includedSASO at both HQ RAFG and HQ STC, AOC 1 Gp,COS and AOCinC STC and, within NATO, CinCAllied Force Northwestern Europe. In April 1997 Sir Richard becameCAS. On his retirement in 2000 he was appointed by HM the Queen asConstable and Governor of Windsor Castle.May I start with a health warning %u2013 a health warning that isparticularly apposite when directed to the members of a distinguishedhistorical society. It is that I kept no personal diary of RAF G%u00fctersloh%u2019scontribution to the Falklands war and so what I have to say is dredgedfrom the murky depths of my memory. But I suppose, ratherimmodestly, that any personal recollection that survives such immersionmay have something to commend it.First then a little bit of personal background. I was posted toG%u00fctersloh in early 1982 as Station Commander and RAFG Harrier ForceCommander. As the first ex-Harrier Squadron Commander selected forthe job you can imagine my pride and pleasure in taking command of adeclared force of thirty-six Harriers and fifty-two Harrier pilots %u2013perhaps fifty-two too many in the probable opinion of the Br%u00fcggenJaguar Wing.By 1982 the concept of ops for the Harrier was well established andfield proven. And we should perhaps here remind ourselves that, at thattime, the geographical focus of the Cold War confrontation was inCentral Europe and overlaid by the direct and mutual threat of anintercontinental nuclear exchange. At stake was national survival,territorial integrity and political ideology. And it was this single scenariowhich drove the strategy, structure, deployment and tactics of our armedforces.So, no surprise that the focus of our operational attention at G%u00fctersloh