West Belfast, August 1982 North Howard Street Mill
We had a number of roles out there, one of them was QRF, (Quick Reaction Force) it meant we had to doss around in full kit ready to jump on our vehicle at moment’s notice. If something happened to your buddies out on the streets, they needed to know that we were ready to back them up, no matter the situation. All there was to do on QRF when you weren’t tasked, was watch TV, fall asleep or eat. I remember in the QRF rest room we only had 2 VHS video tapes; one was Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and the other one was some German porn film. We must have watched Enter the Dragon a few 100 times, we got that bored, we even turned the volume down and we all played different characters from the movie. I can still recite the words today, “Mister Lee your skills are extraordinary” and “Never take you eye off your opponent, even when you bow or you’ll miss all that heavenly glory. ”Obviously spoken in a Chinese accent.
When the porn film was on, instead of the volume going down it was the lights! I wonder why? It had glockenspiel theme music all the way through it; it used to drive me nuts, all over the place, in the rooms, on patrol, in the canteen and for the rest of the tour squaddies were whistling it.
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