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Operation SHADER Padres bring Easter to RAF personnel in the Middle East

Royal Air Force Padres, deployed as part of Operations Shader and Kipion, and at RAF Akrotiri have united to mark Easter and bring together personnel deployed across the region in, Operation Easter Egg.

The RAF Padres deployed across the Broader Middle East. Padres, (Squadron Leader's) Hodder, Hall and Shaw have joined forces to deliver a small gesture for deployed troops over Easter.

The scriptural trio worked together to secure funding from three different RAF linked charities, the Church of Scotland and Free Churches Fund, the Church of England Collections Fund, and the RAF Catholic Church Fund to create some Easter themed gifts for deployed personnel. The little Easter eggs have some Haribo (always synonymous with the ministry of Padres), dog tags which have been cross hole-punched, and a message from the three chaplains reminding them that we are thinking and praying for them all this Easter.

The Easter letter that accompanies the eggs reads:

Happy Easter from the RAF Chaplains!

Easter, like Christmas, is significant in the Christian calendar.  We remember Jesus’ death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead, with the rolling away of the stone from the tomb. 

Easter is a reminder that the love God has for each of us is stronger than anything – even death itself – and that each of us can know God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives, and have hope in a life beyond this one.

However you mark Easter, we hope you have a good one. Please know that your Padres are thinking and praying for you and your loved ones.

The cargo of eggs will be delivered by RAF Air Transport aircraft to RAF personnel in Qatar, Oman, the UAE and Cyprus. The padres will also hand carry the Easter gifts to personnel deployed in Bagdad and Irbil as well as Kuwait where they will also conduct the traditional Easter service.

I think it’s important, regardless of faith to remind all our personnel that the sacrifices they make in service are noticed and appreciated at a time when they may feel their absence from home and the usual traditions; as well as providing a space for us to help reflection on the meaning of Easter.

The traditional Chocolate Easter egg, doesn’t fare well in the Middle Eastern climate, a small team of volunteers from the Chaplaincy and 903 Expeditionary Air Wing have put together 1000 small plastic Eggs filled with some “Moralibo” and small symbol of Easter for people’s Dog Tags. The fiddliest bit was threading the small ribbon for the letter, thank you everyone for your help in realising this small but worthwhile project.” ‘Moralibo’ is a well-known military portmanteau combining much loved ‘Haribo’ with the feeling of morale always accompanied with a delicious gummy treat!

Padre (Squadron Leader) Hall

Although no relation, Operation Easter Egg also shares its name with a little-known German Intelligence service operation to establish small hidden depots of explosives and incendiaries in numerous caches strategically located in France, Holland, Belgium, and Western Germany. 

In 1943 the imaginative German Intelligence Service concocted “Operation Easter Egg” (Ostereiaktion) and intended to utilise these small hidden depots to supply German agents and native traitors. The mission of these saboteurs was to disrupt Allied rear communications after a German Army withdrawal from an area, thus aiding the German forces to recapture the lost territory.