The meeting held recently between the AFM and the Belgian army during which co-operation was agreed for helicopter training reminded me of an incident in the 1960s.
While the uproar was going on in the Belgian Congo, a message was received by the Entebbe Airport Control Tower from the doctor in command of the Army Medical Unit just over the border from Uganda requesting immediate assistance to supply anti snake venom for his troops.
As Senior Medical Officer at Entebbe, the message was relayed to me and after ascertaining the origin of the request and the amounts required, within the hour the anti venom was on its way courtesy of a Uganda Police Air Wing helicopter pilot.
A week later the request was repeated and again despatched.
Ten years later I was posted to a British Army Headquarters in BAOR where the Belgian army had a hospital with three hundred beds and a first class highly qualified medical team.
As senior British Army doctor in the area I immediately sought to introduce myself both to the German civilian hospitals as well as the Belgian Army hospital, about a mile away on the other side of Soest, a quaint old Hansa town.
When I went to the Belgians, I was greeted by the Surgeon Colonel in Command, who immediately asked me if I had a namesake in Uganda. I asked him if he was Doctor Leukx?
I cannot describe his delight and mine at meeting after 10 years and the very strange coincidence of the whole affair.
For the next 15 years I was welcomed as a member of the hospital doctors Officers’ Club and, apart from opening all their facilities to me, never charged the British Army a cent for treatment both emergency obstetric and medical inpatient care.
They even successfully diagnosed my gallstone, which a British surgeon then took out in a British military hospital at Munster.
After that experience I am sure that AFM relations with the Belgian army will be more than cordial and highly educational, since they have an efficient and progressive Officer Corps, who are very generous hosts.
Richard Manche
SWIEQI