Another Squadron photo – but we have got colour now! [40]. Taken as a very popular Boss Sqn Ldr Tony Chaplin was about to leave.
Oops how 
did that get in? In the departure lounge before boarding the VC10 after two years were up – out of shot but not forgotten our 8 week old daughter, Sam, born in the RAF Muharraq Hospital [41].
THE END OF AN ERA
Detachments and APCs continued to occupy 208's time but there was a certain inevitability about the outcome as the British Government told the world that it no longer wanted to maintain a presence East of Suez. A letter in October '70 to the Association sums up the last year succinctly. George Ord's letter is attached [41.5]!
The British 
Forces in the Gulf
were to be disbanded. On 1 September 1971, 208 Squadron was disbanded [42]. This scan is the best we could do of the occasion with the Ceremonial Parade programme [43].
… And 
here is the last CO of the era, Sqn Ldr Ian Dick, cutting the ceremonial cake [44]. With no immediate plans to reform the Squadron it was his duty to bring the Squadron Standard home and to lay it up at RAF College Cranwell. This he did on 26th October 1971 – 55 years to the day of the formation of Naval 8.
So ended an era. Number 208 Squadron had established a record that is unlikely ever to be beaten, It served in the Middle East for almost 52 years - longer than any numbered squadron in the Royal Air Force.
