The British Embassy celebrates the visit of the Trucial Oman Scouts to the UAE
Dubai The Trucial Oman Scouts (TOS) celebrated the 60th anniversary of their founding with a reception hosted at the British Embassy in Dubai, on Wednesday.
Peacekeeping and security
The reception was attended by as many as 60 members of the TOS, who were responsible for peacekeeping and security before the formation of the UAE in 1971.
Speaking at the event, Deputy Consul-General Ian Gibbons commended the return of the Trucial Oman Scouts to the UAE as a demonstration of the exceptional historic links between the UK and the UAE.
"The Scouts played a critical role in the establishment of the federation as we know it today and in many respects laid the foundations to the ongoing and exceptionally close relationship between both countries," Gibbons said.
Initially known as the Trucial Oman Levies, the TOS was a security force established in 1951 to defend the seven emirates of Trucial Oman. TOS officers later established Dubai Police in 1956, the TOS Cadet School (1964-71), the Abu Dhabi Defence Force (1965-76), the Ras Al Khaimah Mobile Force (1969-96), the Dubai Defence Force (1971-96), and the Sharjah National Guard (1972-76).
Union Defence Force
Upon independence, when the emirates merged to become the United Arab Emirates, the TOS was renamed the Union Defence Force. In 1976, the Union Defence Force and the defence forces of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah were unified to form the UAE Armed Forces, while the Sharjah National Guard merged with the UAE Federal Police.
Captain Mike Curtis, who was the officer commanding A-Squadron in 1966, will launch his memoirs during the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature tomorrow, titled Arabian Days.
"The memoirs are published in two sections between another author and I. One documented the war in Jebel Al Akhthar in the late 1950s, and the second section [are] my memoirs in early 1966. I flew to Aden to learn Arabic, and then was stationed at a different squadron every six months," Curtis explained.
Hand grenades
Christopher Brown, who previously operated in the early 1960s at Aden, was first deployed to Buraimi when he was 20 in 1964. At the time, pineapples was the slang term used for hand grenades, and little did he knew that this code was a terminology barely used in the Trucial States.
"I was a young lad and full of energy and was keen to fight and organise my battalion. One day I received a letter that said ‘Operation Immediate' and that bags of pineapples were coming my way. So I set up an ambush plan and was ready to attack when I soon noticed four camels coming my way carrying bags," said Brown.
"To my surprise, it was actually pineapples and not hand grenades as I previously expected, that were being transported to the late Shaikh Zayed's palace garden in Abu Dhabi."
