11/30/2013. Remarks by Mick Gladwin: "I took the images between April and May 2006 during the last operational deployment of RAF 39 Squadron's PR.Mk.9s. I was in charge of the Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (RIC) from April and then right the way through until the end of the tour. A lot of long nights processing the films, scanning the resulting imagery and them forwarding it to the customers. We were based at Seeb, Oman but the aircraft were conducting operations over Afghanistan.

Two (XH131, XH135) of the last three were deployed, the third was XH134. The squadron returned to Marham in June 2006 and disbanded in July, but was later reformed equipped with UAVs. The three aircraft were withdrawn from service and on July 28 flown to RAF Kemble. It was sad to see this aircraft go as I first undertook my photo training (37 years ago) on Canberra PR.Mk.7s.

The aircraft were maintained airworthy at RAF Kemble for military contract work, however, XH131 and XH135 were stored on June 8, 2008. Finally, XH131 was delivered by road to the Ulster Aviation Society for preservation at Long Kesh airfield in Northern Ireland on October 12, 2012.