Leaping lizards, are you friend or foe?

Warrant Officer Mark Cini and Flight Lieutenant Sam Hislop with an unusual pet.

By SQNLDR Christopher Ward

THERE are no plans to change the No. 36 Squadron symbol from the black stallion that adorns the tail of its C-130 aircraft despite a close encounter between a lizard and two of the Squadron’s members.

Flight Lieutenant Sam Hislop and Warrant Officer Mark Cini were at a remote airfield in the Middle East Area of Operations when they were captured on film holding a lizard that itself had been captured and befriended by a United States Air Force ground handler.

The Hercules crew-members had just completed one of more than 1100 airlift sorties flown supporting the reconstruction of Iraq when they were met by the ground handler.

FLTLT Hislop was pleased that the crew were offered a lift to the terminal but almost leaped back into the cockpit when he opened the ground handler’s car door and was confronted with the lizard lounging happily across the front seat. Once the introductions were done, FLTLT Hislop had the presence of mind to capture the moment for posterity.
Long periods of time deployed in isolated locations can have a strange effect on people. This was obvious from the real friendship that the ground handler insisted existed between him and his lizard.

The ground handler did admit that the lizard had needed to be recaptured a few times but had stopped scratching him during the apprehension process and had become quite tame!

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