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Shortly after the new Squadron Commander, Squadron Leader M.S. Goodfellow, took over, 208 departed to Nicosia for an air firing practice camp. After their return ugly noises were to be heard from the Kuwait direction and on 26th June General Kassem of Iraq laid claim to Kuwait. The Squadron spent three rather busy days in tentative preparation and on the fourth someone said “move”. Within twenty-four hours the Hunters were sitting on the ground at Bahrain waiting for the word to move into Kuwait in anticipation of seeing some action.

On 2nd July the Squadron moved into Kuwait and commenced the task of providing dawn and dusk patrols of the Iraq-Kuwait border and such other reconnaissance sorties as were required. The remainder of the flying was devoted to practising ground attack in close support of 24 Brigade Units. On 8th August the Squadron was replaced by 8 and moved back to Bahrain.

For some time 208 had been privileged to provide the Middle East Command aerobatic team and as all the team members had recently been posted a new team was formed and began working up a sequence whilst in Kuwait during their second tour of duty in September. This culminated on 7th October in a diamond 9 formation aerobatic display over Kuwait New airfield.

On 10th October, 208 was the last complete unit of H.M. Forces to leave Kuwait. They flew to Bahrain once more where within two hours of arrival they were operationally ready to strike forces crossing the Kuwait border or to re-enter Kuwait itself.

By the middle of November the Squadron was replaced by 8 and so flew to Khormaksar which was to become its permanent base in December. Once there familiarisation sorties were carried out in the Western Aden Protectorate. On 29th the Squadron really began its association with Aden by providing a flypast at the Inaugural Parade of the Federal Regular Army - the newly independent force which had been created out of the Aden Protectorate Levies.

The first week in December was spent practising for a flypast at the Tanganyika Independence celebrations to be attended by H.R.H. Duke of Edinburgh. For this event nine aircraft were detached to Mombasa while the rest of the Squadron were taking leave prior to the move to Khormaksar .

At this time 8 and 208 were each spending two months at Bahrain and after settling in at Khormaksar by mid-January, the Squadron was off once more to the Gulf. This detachment was used as an intensive training period for tactics, high- low strike navigation and weaponry.

On their return the Squadron’s aerobatic team, consisting of Squadron Leader M.S. Goodfellow. Flying Officer A.D. Doige, Flight Lieutenant F.G. Marshall, Flying Officer R.A. Harper and Flight Lieutenant P.D. Westropp, began concentrated practice for their display at the second Khormaksar open day. The Queen’s official birthday for 1962 was celebrated in Aden on 21st April. The Squadron Standard was paraded along with those of other British Units and those of Arab troops. The parade was reviewed by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Charles Johnston whose arrival was heralded by a flypast of eight 208 aircraft. Before the departure of the Squadron to Bahrain on the next detachment two of the pilots fired their guns in anger for the first time, against dissident tribesmen in the Western Aden Protectorate.

On 28th May the aerobatic team gave a display for H.E. Sheik Khalifa bin Sulman al Khaif a, brother of the ruler of Bahrain, and, to his obvious pleasure. presented him with a Squadron plaque. During this Bahrain detachment a new air to ground range was opened at Jebajib, near Sharjah, on the Trucial Coast. The Squadron celebrated the occasion by providing a fire-power demonstration in the presence of the Ruler of Dubai.

In between these events of course, the Squadron was busy endeavouring to improve its standard of proficiency in each of its five basic roles, namely: close support, interdiction, counter- air, air- defence and visual reconnaissance.

The aerobatics commitment enabled the team to take part in the Nairobi Royal Show in September and the Uganda Independence Day ceremonies in October.

On 19th October the Squadron returned to Khormaksar and was immediately involved in patrolling the Yemen Border from dawn till dusk looking for hostile aircraft. These patrols continued daily until the end of November when the Squadron moved to Bahrain for a rest and Christmas festivities.

Border patrols were resumed after Christmas though they had been reduced to twice-daily sorties. On 17th March the Squadron bade farewell to Squadron Leader Goodfellow and welcomed Squadron Leader G.N. Lewis, AFC. After the Usual detachments the Squadron was able to settle down to four months work at base from May to August, carrying out reconnaissance and “flag waves” over the Radfan.

On 8th and 9th July, operational flights were carried out at the request of the Federal Government. A local ruler was being besieged by a number of rebel tribesmen in a fort somewhere in Upper Yaffa. At first escort sorties were flown while supply dropping was taking place but later live cannon attacks were carried out on targets in the area occupied by the dissidents. These resulted in a truce being suggested by the rebel tribesmen.

The Squadron was detached once more to Bahrain during the last week in August and returned to Khormaksar at the end of October. By December border patrols were recommenced at Beihan as a result of reports of U.A.R. reconnaissance aircraft operating in that area. During the morning of 2nd December one of the patrols spotted a U.A.R. Crate aircraft on Lawdar strip. During the afternoon an interception was carried out on another U.A.R. Crate over Protectorate territory; this aircraft ran for home ignoring all signals ordering it to land.

On 30th December the Squadron Commander led a formation flypast over the funeral cortege of the Assistant High Commissioner, Mr. George Henderson, who died from injuries received when a bomb was thrown at the High Commissioner’s party at Aden airport on 10th December, 1963.

Routine tasks in the W.A.P. involved patrols and escort duties to Supply dropping aircraft and practice “scrambles” to strafe certain areas in the Radfan in support of the F.R.A.