Memories of John Dixon
After leaving 16 Sigs, I had just over a year
in 263 Signal Squadron Bahrain, which took me to various other theatres in
that area, Aden, Trucial Omen States, etc.
I was stationed out
there at the start of the Arab/Israeli 6-day war, where my claim to fame
was that, thanks to me, the whole of Bahrain garrison was put on alert. I
was on "Dhow" patrol with the Navy as their radio op, when we came under
fire early morning as we were sailing under the causeway between Bahrain
Island and Muharraq Island. The skipper, a Lt Commander, gave me a message
to send, an Op Immediate, live!!, back to Headquarters HMS Jufair. (These,
I might add, was the first and only live Op Immediate message I had sent
in my whole army carreer). Of course, when we got back to HMS Jufair that
evening the whole camp was a buzz of activity - squaddies running around
with real rifles and SMG's. My first thought was that World War 3 had
started! But no, only a reaction from my Op Immediate message. Obviously
my rigourous training in good old 16 Sigs bore some fruit! From the middle
East I was posted to 30 Signal Regiment in Blandford, where we were sent
for a two week sortie, ( being a strat reservw unit ), two months later we
returned,
I have benn in sales since leaving the service, sold
sweeties for the then Rowntree Mackintosh group, then on to kitchen
cutlery with a company called Kitchen Devils, part of the Wilkinson Sword
group, then within the outdoor leisure industry. I joined companies like
Karrimor, Burton McCall, Tog 24 etc. I became a director of a company
called Mirencastle Leisure Ltd. They unfortunately went into liquidation,
so I formed my own company, John Dixon Agency, still in the outdoor
leisure industry, selling to the retail sector a range of hiking boots,
sleeping bags, socks, tents, accessories etc.
So, sorry I've
rambled ona bit, but as you can guess by now, I've done nothing
fantastically special, pretty mundane really, however, one thing I do
profess it was thanks to my time in the service that gave me the knowledge
and outwardness to embark on a career in sales.