A Hercules aircraft, operated by the RAF Air Support Command, took off for England with 51 members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF). The participating JDF members, hailing from various units, are set to undergo diverse training courses throughout the three-week exercise. This unique training initiative is a response to the cancellation of the regular Calypso Hop in 1969, underscoring its non-routine nature. The departure ceremony included the presence of Deputy Chief of Staff Col F.K.N. Mascoll, staff officers, and well-wishing family and friends.

Published Sunday, Janaury 4, 1970

Exercise ‘Wobble’

JDF soldiers off to Britain

A troop-carrying four turbo-prop engines CL30 Hercules aircraft of the RAF Air Support Command took off yesterday afternoon for England, carrying 51 members of the JDF on what is described as Exercise ‘Wobble’.

Those going on this exercise are drawn from a number of units within the JDF, who will attend various training courses.

The Rev Kitson-Walters, chaplain to the JDF, goes on a course to the Chaplain’s, and 2 Lt. Ian Chambers is to attend a course in  army accounting. Four sailors from the Coast Guard will be attached to a Royal Navy small ships unit, and the rest will attend courses as clerks, medical orderlies, engineers, fitters, storemen, and so on.

In all, attachments will be to 15 different establishments in the UK. The exercise will last three weeks, and the party returns on January 25.

The plane, which is captained by Squadron Leader Dalton-Morris, and which arrived yesterday direct from England, is based at the RAF station at Fairford in Gloucestershire. It has a crew of six.

This exercise is not a routine one, a military spokesman said, it is compensation to the JDF for the cancellation of the regular Calypso Hop of 1969, which did not take place as the British army was too heavily engaged to spare the battalion needed for the exercise, and so the JDF was unable to send the contingent which normally goes to the UK every year for the training purposes.

The party was seen off at the airport by Deputy Chief of Staff Col F.K.N. Mascoll, and other staff officers, as well as families and friends of those taking part.

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