Had to reply to this...........
Background:
During my time in Bahrain I was one of only two Amateur Radio stations allowed to operate from there firstly under the callsign MP4BHL, then A9XT and finally as A92T. I also had permission from the then ruler, Sheik Isa Bin Salman Al Khalifa, to use the Royal Crest on my QSL (contact acknowledge card), once he heard that they would be sent all over the world!
Related story to the thread:
I had just come off night shift at the airport one morning in May 1969 and, as was my custom, after a quick breakfast went out into my radio shack and fired up my station. I always spent most of my time listening for as soon as I put my (rare) callsign out there everybody wanted to contact me.
After a short time I heard WA6VHD/MM calling, the MM meaning that they were a ship at sea, so I called him up. The operator was Ernie and he said they they were the prime recovery vessel for the Apollo 10 space mission, in the Pacific to retrieve the capsule after splashdown at the end of the mission. We chatted a while and he casually asked whether I'd like to chat with the spacecraft!! WOULD I!!! He said I'd have to wait a few minutes as it was currently in the moon's shadow and there was no coms, and then he patched me through to Thomas Stafford, the mission commander, via their UHF link. We had about an eight minute chat and then they went back behind the moon.
I chatted with Ernie a bit longer and he said he'd send me a signed photo of the crew and send me a piece of the cake made especially for the successful mission - which he did!!