Operation Megalithic Lift - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 220

F IG . 7.25 Left to right, Dr. Euan MacKie, Prof. Alexander Thom and the late
Bill Braithwaite. Note the displays of Pioneer Jupiter and Viking Mars pho-
tographs, on loan to the project from ASTRA for use in schools
operation about to start, sir, please take my seat on the aircraft,”
and as it flew off, turned to his driver and said, “Take me to the
party.” What the MoD inspector thought, when he found he was
to participate in building a megalithic circle, is not on record.
We had of course made a point of inviting the ground crew,
little realizing how unusual that was. Later we were told of a
more typical incident, where a retired admiral in the village of
Dunure had asked for a detachment of sailors to move his yacht's
mooring in the harbor. After hours chest-deep in mud at low tide,
in the middle of winter, they had been left soaking on the har-
bor wall while the ex-admiral took the officers for a drink; and
this time, too, they were expected to wait outside the building,
with snow threatening again, for transport that wasn't coming for
more than 3 h.
John Braithwaite reported this to Keith Fraser, who autho-
rized the Special Projects secretary, Pia Pisaneschi, to issue John
with a float from petty cash to take the ground crew to the George
Hotel nearby. The Operations Manager, Alan Montgomery, was