Top Cover

After the Lisburn bombing and the end of the ceasefire we resumed limited patrolling on the streets of Northern Ireland. One of our main jobs was escorting the civilian police around in our armoured Landrovers. The basic idea was this - there is a danger that someone might try to shoot at us or blow us up - if there is a gun pointed in their general direction they might think otherwise. The solution - the top cover sentry. The armoured landrover had a hatch in its roof - a kind of sun roof with a purpose. Two lucky souls would stand up inside the landrover and lean out of the sun roof pointing their weapons in a menacing manner. The downfall, it always rains in Northern Ireland, well maybe not always - just 90% of the time. Top cover sentry usually involved getting very cold, very wet. If the weather was good then the insects would be out - and you'd end up looking like the front windscreen of a car - swallowing a fly at 50 mph isn't much fun I can assure you. Whatever the weather though I prefered being stood up and seeing what was going on rather than sat cocooned in the back of the vehicle waiting for something to happen.