Edit: WARNING! The following content is a continuation of the above post containing a graphic look back at my past. If you do not want to see it, please go to page 27 were normal research info resumes! (Jump to Post Page 27, #261 to avoid reading the below text!). Thanks.
May 19th, 1990.
So, I’m at a friends apartment off base with another friend. We’d been invited to a BBQ that was being held with other family members. It was a really nice, hot sunny day. We’d been out at the adventure playground for most of the day seeing our other school friends. The whole area was a mix of apartment blocks and houses all military quarters for people on our base and surrounding bases. In amongst those where your standard German houses, for the locals, shops, etc. It was like a town within a town of German and English speaking people. To be honest, you never ever had to speak german or dutch depending on what side of the border you were on. Go into a shop; and they must of just known you were British; and would speak to you in English. Kind of made me laugh in school because we were all taught French and German; and really thinking about it, we should of been taught Dutch as well, what with it being so close to where we all lived, but nope, only place we attempted to learn that, was in that cafe bar in Roermond, late at night, whenever we snuck off of the base! 
Anyhow, this one. Not looking forward to describing these events. I’m certainly reminded of them practically every day when I look at my left arm/elbow! We went back to the apartment. My friends family had set up a BBQ outside the back. There was a massive piece of grass at the back of the 2 apartment blocks which backed out onto it. Small parking area next to that for the residents vehicles. So we sat about had our food, soft drinks for us, pah, if only they knew what we did after dark, lol!! But all in all, it was good. Then it was time for my friend and I to return back to base, we both lived on it, so my friend went to walk us back. At the same time, his uncle and work friend were leaving. They lived on another base and were visiting for the family get-together. That’s when the chaos began. I’ve never to this day been able to watch an action movie that at some point reminds me of this one incident! Nor have I ever been able to learn to drive, as the sound of the starter motor freaks me out! 
As my friends and I walked slowly across the field to catch our bus, we heard the two men go to get into their car. We stopped and turned to wave; and that’s when it hit us! First, I heard the starter motor tick over; and within a split second there was a ‘flash’ from beneath the middle of the vehicle. All 4 wheels lifted off of the ground! In an instant, that very instant what we had been taught in school every 6 months about checking the family car, carrying a carrier bag in your pocket to keep your clothing clean, whilst kneeling on the ground to inspect the underside, I knew this was a bomb! and oh, for a few seconds, the car felt like it was suspended in the air motionless. But as it came to come back down, that’s when a massive fireball engulfed the vehicle forcing the roof to splinter off up into the air. That blast, that blast threw all three of us to the ground! I just remember lifting my left arm up over my face and being hit with what I can only describe at the hottest hair dryer I have ever encountered!! The noise was deafening, frightening. The feeling in my stomach/chest was horrible, like I’d been hit hard by a hammer. My ears were ringing a high pitched noise and even though it all was over in seconds, it felt like an eternity!! I remember lifting myself up with my right arm, my left arm red raw down one side peppered with what I thought at the time was soil/grit, turned out later to be shrapnel from the metal of the car! Took my friend a few seconds to realise and he just jumped up and screamed towards what was now unrecognisable as a car! Flames, thick black smoke everywhere! My other friend and I just grabbed our friend and dragged him back, to the point were he collapsed on the ground and broke down. I knew how he felt, I’d felt the exact same on May 1st; and now I was experiencing my 3rd incident and thinking to myself, “How much bad luck can any one person get?!” I know there’s a saying that things come in “3’s” but they really don’t, well not for me anyhow. Guard room again the next day (afternoon) for me, lifted off of the sidewalk again. Word had gotten back that I was present. Somehow, I got my parents to believe me it was sunburn, despite them knowing of what had gone on off-base. I don’t think they knew I’d gone off base, what with the heightened security, I’m pretty sure that they thought I was sensible enough to stay behind the protection of the perimeter fence. Didn’t stop me though, didn’t stop any of us meeting up on or off base, we were young, curious, liked doing our own thing, exploring mostly to parts of the base civilians weren’t allowed access to, but I had those lovely maps, I knew all the weak points, how to get around the security checkpoints, probably what always got me into trouble, lol! Even so, my dad took me to the medical centre for my ‘sunburn’ the next morning after it happened. Yeah, they doctor looked at me when I said it was grit from falling at the skate park on base. I’ll always remember his saying, “Doesn’t look like grit to me, looks more like metal!” Yeah, it was, but dad was watching; and if I said where I was, what I’d seen, damn, not worth it, he was strict, so I stuck with the sunburn claim.
Dad went back to work, left me to do my own thing, at which point I not long got lifted off the street - ‘Official Secrets Act 1989’. Woah there, new form!! Same colour, same type of beige paper, just a lot more boxes to fill in - Same MP, arf!!
So, this leads me onto the final one. Almost there! Sorry if this has shocked any of you reading it, but to me, this was what I’ve come to say to people as “My best years and my worst years all rolled into one!” They really were. I had some really great times, met so many wonderful people. Forever met the Royal Family, would get escorted out of the school with a union jack flag to wave as they went by on a visit, then ushered back in to continue with our lessons, lol. Can’t forget the school trips, we went everywhere! France, Belgium, Holland, all over Germany, they were the best! After School activities, I did them all, IT - Programming, Metal work, CDT, graphic design, textiles (Yes, even I like to sew, lol). I’ve never been able to compare a civilian school to a military one, far, far advanced!! But, for all the good, there was the bad; and although there weren’t that many incidents, because of how they were spaced out over the 4 and a half years, they just seemed to come one after the other, it felt neverending!
So, the last one. May 27th, 1990. We’re back in Roermond. The number plates have now been changed to be yellow/white, yep, some bright spark has decided it would be better to change them, yeah right!
I’m out with friends, heading for the cafe bar in the square; and I can see a car parked up with what looks like the UK plates. I can see a man at the back with the boot (trunk) up, one guy to the right of the vehicle and two women on the other side. Lots of people around, lots of tourists. Well, Roermond had a huge marina, it was a tourist location and despite its own locals, it was packed with Forces personnel and their families all the time! So, without warning, two guys with automatic weapons, dressed all in black run out from my right side. One takes out the guy on the right, whilst the other goes to the back and shoots the man at the trunk. They didn’t stand a chance and they ran off over to the other side of the square and got into a waiting black jeep and sped off! The women. I’ll never forget their screams. Every time I think about it, I hear those screams. Matter of a fact, if I hear anyone scream, that’s the thought that appears in my mind.
Turns out, they weren’t Military, not even close!! They were solicitors on holiday from Australia with their partners! Big outcry by the Australian PM and you’d think so too, but it paved the way for yet another change of the vehicle number plates! Every single personnel member had the option of either having Dutch or German plates fitted. Kind of made sense, but there was one major flaw! German/Dutch cars steering wheels are on the left, Britsh wheels are on the right, therefore, those of us thinking about it, thought “Really, in a way you’re still going to be a target!”
For me, that was my last incident, thankfully! I don’t think I could of taken any more if I’m honest. Dad got posted back to the UK, as did most of my friends. We didn’t all get sent to the same places sadly, but thanks to social media we have tracked one another down over the years and kept in-touch that way.
But, maybe now you will understand a little bit more about me, why I’ve been the way I have for the past 6 years, keeping things to myself. I think at times I may have posted small amounts of the above in previous postings, but never really felt the ability to go fully in-depth and tell all!! Kind of a relief if I’m honest. I’m still roasting hot as I type this, but yet, for once I’m feeling calm.
I guess now, all I need to do is work out a way to move on.Well, I did start this post off with…
…That was new jobs. I said I’ve been looking. All I have seen all week is posting on social media for people to swap shifts this week and next. I can probably guess why, shift manager from hell, no one wants to work with her, me included, but it’s her bad vibes that has been giving me that push to look elsewhere. Just got to update my C.V. Not done so in over 4 years, it’s old, contains far too much info - 12 pages is just too long, lol!! Even that’s a cut down from a few years back. Used to be a mini novel, lol, 26 pages long, I literally crammed in every qualification, course, job that I could remember. Even tailoring it to match a job now, not easy. I may have the experience, but when adding all the crucial info, all the stuff they’re probably looking for in a candidate, well my C.V. always ends up going on forever, lol. Probably should get a template and try and stick with it.
Anyhow, what with above, it’s something I cannot ever share with any future employer. Even my current and past employers have never known!! It’s just something you can’t bring up in a conversation; and even if you did, how do you tell them, how do you make them believe. Other than literally sticking them on the media group and letting them read the comments of others present with me most of the time, I think it is something, my past anyhow, that I will always have to keep to myself!
I guess now, you’ll come to understand why I help people without thought. It’s sort of in my nature. Whenever I see someone down, depressed, not themselves, I feel the need to help. If I see someone injured, I have to help. If it’s a threatening situations; and I’ve had a few of those since the ‘hotel incident’ in other jobs, I just have to try and intervene. Call me mad on that one, but if I have to put myself between someone to protect them from harm, then so be it; and there’s been a few times over the years that I have done just that.
Believe it all not, for once, I actually feel calm, like a huge weight has been lifted off of me! 
I guess one day maybe, my dreams will come true, but until that day, only reality remains to be my main focus; and I’ll have to attempt to see it through!!
With that, wow, look at the time, been typing this for over 6 hours! Where did that time go??!! 
I’ll bid you a farewell and speak soon. Probably tomorrow after my shift. Can’t believe how calm I feel right now. At least I’ve stopped crying over ‘X’, lol. 
Time heals apparently, I hope it does anyhow.
Speak soon,
NH.
I think I’ll give the current mix another try as it is, still got well over half the contents of the 2-GO left. Maybe a little P83, or 
Think I may have to get some A314, just for when I’m on with her. Might get her to back the hell off! She can’t even tell individual staff directly to their faces what she wants them to do, no, she will tell someone stood right next to them, to tell them. I pished her off last week when I turned to the person next to me and said “Did you get all that?” Response from psycho straight away was, “No. I want YOU to tell them exactly what I have told you!” You know, it’s times like this that I wish the floor was electrified, push a button, watch her jump around to the rhythm of the horrid music coming out of the ceiling PA system. Wishful thinking.
