The Battle of Mirbat - 40 years on

For the uninitiated The Battle of Mirbat took place on the 19th of July 1972 in the Sultanate of Oman.  Suffice to say there are a number of accounts of the battle and a particularly poignant one is at this link Mirbat explained .
I have neglected my links with the various regiments I served in until recently when I was urged by a "colleague at work, lets call him Paul", to chronicle the various events and stories I told about him about my 29 years 197 days as a soldier.
In gathering the material for the book I came into contact again with people I had not seen or been in touch with for over 20 years.  
In particular one person from my Hereford days, "lets call him Bulmer" (bulmers cider, hereford get the drift?) urged me to attend a little "do" he was putting together to honour and remember our Mirbat Heroes on the 40th Anniversary of the battle.
It was only when I received an e mail from "Bulmers" wife, lets call her "Maud"!, asking me very succinctly to attend. In fact her actual words were "Isn’t it about time you got your backside down here and did some catching up?"  How could I refuse!
On the 19th July 2012 the survivors less 1 met up at Bulmers house and for the first time I stood there in awe as they told the tale.  Like many others I have a "Mirbat Print" and they had agreed to sign it albeit with some reluctance as they generally end up on ebay! 
We then went down to the cemetery where Laba who died at Mirbat and Tommy who died later of his wounds in UK are buried to lay wreaths.  
The culmination of the day however was a dinner held at a local hotel where a 100 people (about 60 old soldiers and wives) met up to celebrate the anniversary.
 I'm particularly bad at remembering names and when you are being advanced on by a smiling old guy who for 1 you don't recognise and if you do you cant rememberer his name its little daunting.  It was strange though that even when I had to say who are you? a growing number of times the voices mannerisms and smiles whipped up the memory of who they were.  
At dinner I sat next to 1 of the Strikemaster jet pilots who helped save the day and opposite my old Squadron Commander who had my old Troop Commander sat next to him! 
At after dinner speech time we had to gather in the garden, thank goodness for the warm pleasant weather.  Three items in the speeches really drove home the significance and of the importance and respect we all still have for these guys.  
One was a letter from the Prime Minister read out by "Bulmer", another was the fact that wreaths were laid at Mirbat that very morning and we saw the pictures and thirdly a report no one had seen before.  
An officer, (not connected to our regiment) was despatched to Mirbat not long after the battle to write the official and unbiased report of the events.  The actual officer stood there in front of us all and read out the report and you could have heard a pin drop.  
The glowing references to each of the 8  guys involved was staggering and a fitting culmination to the evening events.  
So my ties with Hereford, and all that! have been renewed and I will keep them going. It remains then only for me to say thanks "to a colleague, lets call him Paul", for urging me to write the book which started all this and finally thanks to "Bulmer and Maud!" for putting in the hard work for the "do" and renewing my link with them and to what has been described as, "The most exclusive club in the world", 22 Special Air Service Regiment.  
 Pic of a "Potent brew below!"