American Eagle
MILITARY PROFESSIONAL
- Joined
- May 25, 2010
- Messages
- 3,288
- Reaction score
- 8
- Country
- Location
OPEN WIDE FOR EASE OF READING. Tks, George
Just released Friday, July 30, 2010 on the Internet at:
http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/ColdwartimesAug2010.pdf
FUN TIMES IN WEST PAKISTAN DURING THE COLD WAR, 1963-1965
By George L. Singleton, Colonel, USAF, Retired
My social life as a single officer in Pakistan began after reporting for duty in Karachi inNovember, 1963 as Commander, Detachment 2, 6937th Communications Group, a subordinate unit of the 693th Communications Group in Badabur, suburban Peshawar, West Pakistan.
I was added to the roster of officers in the Office of the US Air Attaché at the US Embassy in Karachi, and soon started to receive printed formal invitations to what became numerous US and
allied parties. These were the days when the US, our European and Asian allies all belong to both CENTO (The Central Asia Treaty Organization, successor to the old Baghdad Pact) and to
SEATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
The US was focused on having our then ally Pakistan help us contain to the North both the Soviet Union and then very militarily aggressive Communist China. The US also hoped to get Pakistans support once we got into the Vietnam War but the advent of the 1965 India-Pakistan War shot down getting Pakistan to join us in Vietnam.
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 29 of 56
Back to our social life while in West Pakistan.
My first formal dinner party invitation came in December 1963 from Colonel and Mrs. Peter Marriott. Colonel Marriott was the Canadian Armed Forces Attaché to Pakistan based at the Canadian Embassy in Karachi. I was, as always, the most junior officer present, being only a
Second Lieutenant, even though I filled a Lt. Colonels billet.
Two very humorous things happened at this Canadian Christmas party. It seems that the house boy for the Marriotts had been told to clean up the living room open wood burning fireplace.
Misunderstanding his instructions the house boy not only cleaned up the hearth and fire place, he plastered the stone fire box where the logs were laid, and painted it white, to make it look pristinely clean. During the old Raj era the habit of painting everything in site with white wash seemed to have carried over and to this day goes on in 2010 in Pakistan, or so I am told.
In any event as the evening progressed (we didnt arrive at any formal function in Karachi until well after 9 PM, closer to 10 PM in most cases and never sat down to dinner until well after midnight, due to the days lingering heat) Mrs. Marriott decided to light a fire under the neatly stacked logs. We were all standing around in our mess dress (formal) uniforms with the ladies in their formal when what seemed like gun shots started to erupt from the fireplace! The heat from the burning logs was causing the white washed new plaster over now red hot stones to explode sending shards of plaster all over the room! A few folks received plaster fragment hits to their
legs, but nothing very serious. But it surely startled everyone, with several old troopers, British,French, Dutch, and of course some Americans, diving for cover as if back on the battle field once
again.
This was quite an introduction to Pakistan at Christmas time in 1963.
On another occasion I was a guest of Group Captain and Mrs. P. G. K. (Pete) Williamson, RAF. Pete was the British Air Advisor to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan in Karachi at another dinner party. During the party the wife of the Dutch Ambassador to Pakistan chatted with me and kept addressing me as Captain. Being only a Second Lieutenant I got Group Captain Williamson off on the side and asked why the Dutch Ambassadors wife kept calling me Captain. Pete told me that my mess dress uniform epaulettes had two long silver stripes crossed at the end by my single gold bar as a Lieutenant. Pete explained she was reading the two long silver stripes as Captains stripes by honest error. This party was the first of many with various and sundry British allies who were very helpful to me in my new mission in Karachi on behalf of our up country Peshawar area US Air Station.
At another formal Karachi diplomatic dinner party in 1964 at the home of the British Army Advisor to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Brigadier Panton, Royal Army, great humor occurred when the Brigadier seated at the head of the dinner table was stricken with the all too common ailment in Pakistan during that era, a violent attack of amoebic dysentery. Dressed up in his red waist jacket and black trousers with red stripe denoting flag officer rank, Brigadier Panton, wearing Wellington boots with shiny silver spurs, jumped up, caught his spurs
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 30 of 56
in his homes thick oriental carpet, and crashed to the floor as his amoebic attack overcame him and us. Instead of embarrassment everyone fully understood as we all in varying ways suffered
such attacks, and the Brigadier finally was able to get to his feet, was gone for a while, and reappeared in a fresh uniform as if nothing at all had happened. Gales of laughter ensued, much of it from the cleaned up Brigadier himself. I might note that Brigadier Panton was a famous
commander of Ghurkas in Burma during WW II, a very historic figure in his own right.
Often on weekends a group of young business, military and foreign service professionals and officers would caravan to a very nice beach on the Arabian Sea, well away from the City of Karachi. There our dates and our staff house cooks would have prepared sandwiches and drinks we enjoyed for mid-afternoon lunch and later tea.
I became pretty good at snorkeling and spear fishing and started bringing home large sea bass on late Sunday afternoons, which our house boys cooked up, together with langouste, large sea
lobsters I was able to pick up from around reefs in the sea but near the beach.
On one occasion at the beach, swimming straight out to sea from the beach, flippers, mask and spear gun in hand, I kept hearing faint shouts from the shore. Finally I stopped swimming, looked back to see everyone in our party jumping up and down pointing out ahead in the direction I was swimming. Turning around I was face to face with one of the largest aged sea turtles I ever saw. I was in deep water, treading. The turtle sized me up and simply swam around
me, headed to the beach, where it eventually arrived and ambled inland for some unseen purpose.
On another occasion, some of my Karachi Pakistani Foreign Office and Pakistani International Airlines friends, together with a Scottish friend who sold Leyland trucks and buses all over Pakistan, knowing I held a highly classified job, had their friend, the young man who headed up the USSR manufactured Tractor Sales Office in Karachi, show up at our picnic to join me in snorkeling and spear fishing. I apparently disappointed everyone as the Russian and I had a good
afternoon spearing sea bass and parrot fish, and then went our separate ways at the end of the afternoon. By staying in and under the water I had virtually no conversation with the Russian
whatsoever.
This is the second in a series of up to twelve articles which Gary Powers, Jr. is allowing me to donate to his COLD WAR TIMES Magazine online. Perhaps this second time readers have found some light humor in what were otherwise troublesome Cold War times there in old West Pakistan.
About The Author
Colonel George L. Singleton is retired from 31 years in the Air Force. Six years on active duty, including 1963-65 at the US Embassy in Karachi, then West Pakistan, and 25 years in the USAF Reserve, including with HQ US Special Operations Command as the reserve augmentee to the Assistant Chief of Staff for J-4, Joint Services Combat Logistics. In civilian life George Singleton was an Asia Division International Banking Officer in New York City with the old Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company 1968-1971. His territory technically included all nations on the Indian Subcontinent, SE Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but his primary
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 31 of 56
focus was Japan. Mr. Singleton was a Member of both the Asia Society of New York and the Japan Society of New York. He also was an assistant editor and writer of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Japan Chrysler Report which went out monthly to the top 100 corporate clients of the bank. He is today retired from US Civil Service where he was a Senior Budget Analyst to the US Surgeon General in the US Public Health Service; Chief of Five and Ten Year
Budget Programs and Plans (budget formulation for the VA Congressional and Presidential Budgets) for the national Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital system in Washington; and served at the Birmingham US Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital both as the
Administrative Officer (Grants Officer) of the VA Medical Research Service and later as the all VA hospitals in Alabama Manager of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). A prolific article and letter writer since 911 he has been published in the Karachi DAWN; the Peshawar FRONTIER POST; the Lahore DAILY NEWS; the Lahore, Pakistan Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan's first free market (academic) think tank; KHYBERWATCH.COM; THE MOSCOW TIMES; THE TIMES OF INDIA; THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE, and other publications.
Just released Friday, July 30, 2010 on the Internet at:
http://www.coldwar.org/text_files/ColdwartimesAug2010.pdf
FUN TIMES IN WEST PAKISTAN DURING THE COLD WAR, 1963-1965
By George L. Singleton, Colonel, USAF, Retired
My social life as a single officer in Pakistan began after reporting for duty in Karachi inNovember, 1963 as Commander, Detachment 2, 6937th Communications Group, a subordinate unit of the 693th Communications Group in Badabur, suburban Peshawar, West Pakistan.
I was added to the roster of officers in the Office of the US Air Attaché at the US Embassy in Karachi, and soon started to receive printed formal invitations to what became numerous US and
allied parties. These were the days when the US, our European and Asian allies all belong to both CENTO (The Central Asia Treaty Organization, successor to the old Baghdad Pact) and to
SEATO, the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.
The US was focused on having our then ally Pakistan help us contain to the North both the Soviet Union and then very militarily aggressive Communist China. The US also hoped to get Pakistans support once we got into the Vietnam War but the advent of the 1965 India-Pakistan War shot down getting Pakistan to join us in Vietnam.
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 29 of 56
Back to our social life while in West Pakistan.
My first formal dinner party invitation came in December 1963 from Colonel and Mrs. Peter Marriott. Colonel Marriott was the Canadian Armed Forces Attaché to Pakistan based at the Canadian Embassy in Karachi. I was, as always, the most junior officer present, being only a
Second Lieutenant, even though I filled a Lt. Colonels billet.
Two very humorous things happened at this Canadian Christmas party. It seems that the house boy for the Marriotts had been told to clean up the living room open wood burning fireplace.
Misunderstanding his instructions the house boy not only cleaned up the hearth and fire place, he plastered the stone fire box where the logs were laid, and painted it white, to make it look pristinely clean. During the old Raj era the habit of painting everything in site with white wash seemed to have carried over and to this day goes on in 2010 in Pakistan, or so I am told.
In any event as the evening progressed (we didnt arrive at any formal function in Karachi until well after 9 PM, closer to 10 PM in most cases and never sat down to dinner until well after midnight, due to the days lingering heat) Mrs. Marriott decided to light a fire under the neatly stacked logs. We were all standing around in our mess dress (formal) uniforms with the ladies in their formal when what seemed like gun shots started to erupt from the fireplace! The heat from the burning logs was causing the white washed new plaster over now red hot stones to explode sending shards of plaster all over the room! A few folks received plaster fragment hits to their
legs, but nothing very serious. But it surely startled everyone, with several old troopers, British,French, Dutch, and of course some Americans, diving for cover as if back on the battle field once
again.
This was quite an introduction to Pakistan at Christmas time in 1963.
On another occasion I was a guest of Group Captain and Mrs. P. G. K. (Pete) Williamson, RAF. Pete was the British Air Advisor to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan in Karachi at another dinner party. During the party the wife of the Dutch Ambassador to Pakistan chatted with me and kept addressing me as Captain. Being only a Second Lieutenant I got Group Captain Williamson off on the side and asked why the Dutch Ambassadors wife kept calling me Captain. Pete told me that my mess dress uniform epaulettes had two long silver stripes crossed at the end by my single gold bar as a Lieutenant. Pete explained she was reading the two long silver stripes as Captains stripes by honest error. This party was the first of many with various and sundry British allies who were very helpful to me in my new mission in Karachi on behalf of our up country Peshawar area US Air Station.
At another formal Karachi diplomatic dinner party in 1964 at the home of the British Army Advisor to the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Brigadier Panton, Royal Army, great humor occurred when the Brigadier seated at the head of the dinner table was stricken with the all too common ailment in Pakistan during that era, a violent attack of amoebic dysentery. Dressed up in his red waist jacket and black trousers with red stripe denoting flag officer rank, Brigadier Panton, wearing Wellington boots with shiny silver spurs, jumped up, caught his spurs
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 30 of 56
in his homes thick oriental carpet, and crashed to the floor as his amoebic attack overcame him and us. Instead of embarrassment everyone fully understood as we all in varying ways suffered
such attacks, and the Brigadier finally was able to get to his feet, was gone for a while, and reappeared in a fresh uniform as if nothing at all had happened. Gales of laughter ensued, much of it from the cleaned up Brigadier himself. I might note that Brigadier Panton was a famous
commander of Ghurkas in Burma during WW II, a very historic figure in his own right.
Often on weekends a group of young business, military and foreign service professionals and officers would caravan to a very nice beach on the Arabian Sea, well away from the City of Karachi. There our dates and our staff house cooks would have prepared sandwiches and drinks we enjoyed for mid-afternoon lunch and later tea.
I became pretty good at snorkeling and spear fishing and started bringing home large sea bass on late Sunday afternoons, which our house boys cooked up, together with langouste, large sea
lobsters I was able to pick up from around reefs in the sea but near the beach.
On one occasion at the beach, swimming straight out to sea from the beach, flippers, mask and spear gun in hand, I kept hearing faint shouts from the shore. Finally I stopped swimming, looked back to see everyone in our party jumping up and down pointing out ahead in the direction I was swimming. Turning around I was face to face with one of the largest aged sea turtles I ever saw. I was in deep water, treading. The turtle sized me up and simply swam around
me, headed to the beach, where it eventually arrived and ambled inland for some unseen purpose.
On another occasion, some of my Karachi Pakistani Foreign Office and Pakistani International Airlines friends, together with a Scottish friend who sold Leyland trucks and buses all over Pakistan, knowing I held a highly classified job, had their friend, the young man who headed up the USSR manufactured Tractor Sales Office in Karachi, show up at our picnic to join me in snorkeling and spear fishing. I apparently disappointed everyone as the Russian and I had a good
afternoon spearing sea bass and parrot fish, and then went our separate ways at the end of the afternoon. By staying in and under the water I had virtually no conversation with the Russian
whatsoever.
This is the second in a series of up to twelve articles which Gary Powers, Jr. is allowing me to donate to his COLD WAR TIMES Magazine online. Perhaps this second time readers have found some light humor in what were otherwise troublesome Cold War times there in old West Pakistan.
About The Author
Colonel George L. Singleton is retired from 31 years in the Air Force. Six years on active duty, including 1963-65 at the US Embassy in Karachi, then West Pakistan, and 25 years in the USAF Reserve, including with HQ US Special Operations Command as the reserve augmentee to the Assistant Chief of Staff for J-4, Joint Services Combat Logistics. In civilian life George Singleton was an Asia Division International Banking Officer in New York City with the old Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company 1968-1971. His territory technically included all nations on the Indian Subcontinent, SE Asia, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, but his primary
Cold War Times August 2010 Page 31 of 56
focus was Japan. Mr. Singleton was a Member of both the Asia Society of New York and the Japan Society of New York. He also was an assistant editor and writer of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Japan Chrysler Report which went out monthly to the top 100 corporate clients of the bank. He is today retired from US Civil Service where he was a Senior Budget Analyst to the US Surgeon General in the US Public Health Service; Chief of Five and Ten Year
Budget Programs and Plans (budget formulation for the VA Congressional and Presidential Budgets) for the national Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital system in Washington; and served at the Birmingham US Department of Veterans Affairs Hospital both as the
Administrative Officer (Grants Officer) of the VA Medical Research Service and later as the all VA hospitals in Alabama Manager of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). A prolific article and letter writer since 911 he has been published in the Karachi DAWN; the Peshawar FRONTIER POST; the Lahore DAILY NEWS; the Lahore, Pakistan Alternate Solutions Institute, Pakistan's first free market (academic) think tank; KHYBERWATCH.COM; THE MOSCOW TIMES; THE TIMES OF INDIA; THE ECONOMIST MAGAZINE, and other publications.
