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RAOC Gazette - page 38

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Corps RAOC
Material type Journals
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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1980
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Early date 1980
Late date 1980
Transcription ORDNANCE
COMPANY
A VERY full month for the Company. The week's regimental
training at Vogelsang went well and all our newly recruited
young soldiers got their first real taste of living in the field.
The Company sent eight men to patrol the East German
border in the area of the Hartz Mountains. The patrol proved
to be both interesting and educational; apparently Sergeant
Hepburn has now fully recovered from his sudden bout of car
tiickness.
- -
We say welcome this month to Second Lieutenant Tindle,
Corporal Hollins, Private Carlsaw, and Lance Corporal Clark.
K temporary farewell must be made to Lieutenant Morrison
tpho has returned to UK for his OO's course, at the moment
it is doubtful whether there will be a tent let alone a room for
him in the Mess when he returns.
Corporal Kilnan, Privates Stringer and Skivington have all
been posted out of the Unit The unorthodox rugby playing
style of Corporal Kilnan will be missed in the Company. Lance
Corporal Porter and Private Langsford have also left the Unit
and returned to UK to civilian life.
The month was dominated by our two most important
visits of the year, namely; the C-in-C and the DDOS. A lot
of hard work and effort was put in to the visits by all members
of the Unit. The Company also provided a strong detachment
on the Hemer Site Guard in the middle of the month.
We also say welcome to an unusually large contingent of
new faces this month, Corporal Adams, Lance Corporal Maguire,
Corporal Mclntyre, Privates Anyon, Richardson, Seeney and
Sutton.
A party left for Berlin for a few days recently. Sergeant
Elsworth nearly organised it! Our new subaltern, who arrived
a couple of months ago, has become actively involved in the
various company map reading exercises. In fact Second Lieu-
tenant Tindle appears to have become so keen on the pastime
that he spends an entire evening closely examining one check-
point. The ' wrecker' has now located and removed his Land
Rover!
Belated congratulations are also due to Captain David
Chilton and his wife Pat on the birth of their second son.
the SSM's Daily Telegraph looking for the Dolly ' Bird' on
page three and his advice on man-management has been noted
with interest in ' guess who's' little black book!
No longer will the portly figure of Sergeant lim Foster be
seen pounding round the BFT track at lunchtime. " Rolling
Rickshaw' has gone—Good luck Jim and watch out Don-
nington.
Hello to Sergeant Alan Sargent, " What's your name
Sergeant?"—"Sargent Sir." "Sargent?" "Sargent Sargent Sir."
Oh! well welcome Alan, we all hope your tour will be an enjoy-
able one and that your family will be here in Dortmund by
the time these notes appear in THE GAZETTE.
4 t h Armoured
Division
I THE month of April saw the arrival of
^^fl^^.
Major Mike Pike who has assumed the
^^H^^^k
appointment of S02 Mat in the Head-
^^^f^^^k
quarters.
He has replaced Major John
^^^^^^^H
Evans who has now left us for Chilwell on
^^^^^^^^m
promotion to Lieutenant Colonel. We wish
^^^^^^^m
him and his wife Clementine a happy tour.
^^^t^r'
To Major Pike we extend a warm welcome
,___„_______
and look forward to meeting his wife when
she joins him shortly.
We also welcome Lance Corporal Steve Rees who has
joined us from 2nd Armoured Division Ordnance Company.
We must try to find a place for him on a colloquial German
course, since after one of his first nights out in Herford he
had to ask Herr Piontek what ' Schnookie ' was in English!
Great hilarity struck the branch this morning when we
discovered that our ' B ' team in the Winter League RAOC
Small Bore Shooting had won prizes for second place in their
league. The team of: Lieutenant Colonel Willis, W02 Tail,
Corporal Hogg and Staff Sergeant Burnett managed on one
occasion to beat the score of three hundred out of four hundred
in the season!
ORDNANCE
COMPANY
THE CRAOC Spring Exercise really took the form of an en-
larged ARU with the inspecting officer Colonel Istead (Colonel
AQ Headquarters 4th Armoured Division) putting us through
our paces from 7 am one day until 1 pm the next. Our ' paces '
included a BFT, inspection of personal kit, vehicles and barracks,
a move to a field location, patrolling and defence, a second move
at short notice, range practices with every man firing his
personal weapon and stands testing and teaching various military
skills. All in all we are told we did rather well.
After that CRAOC pushed us around on the Achmer
training area where we fought our way through the mud and
against his Divisional Headquarter forces for the remainder
of the week. We have learned much, but still have much to
learn.
Arrivals welcomed this month include Lieutenant Cook,
Staff Sergeant Ryan, Corporal Gammons plus new born mem-
bers provided by Private and Mrs Copeland and Private and
Mrs Sampson to whom we extend our heartiest congratulations.
Promotions, all to Lance Corporal, are to be congratulated for
Messrs Law, Overall, Smith (254) and Stringer.
86 SUPPLY DEPOT
BRIGADIER SKINNER DDOS 1 (BR) Corps, paid an initial
visit to the Depot recently. Although the visit lasted only a
short time the DDOS managed to meet the majority of Depot
personnel.
The 'lucky d i p ' bag for promotions this year has come up
trumps for two of our NCOs: Corporals Bob Stevens and Ron
Wilson have been selected for promotion to Sergeant and are
posted within the next few months. Our sincere congratulations
go to both.
We welcome back to the fold Corporal Brian Bolton after a
four month sojourn in Belize. The Unit bar profits have already
shown an improvement. If any reader is adapt at repairing
broken onyx chess boards, Brian would be pleased to hear from
him.
Our Master Butcher, Sergeant Roy Lancaster has success-
fully completed a Supply Specialist (Restructuring) Course at
the RAOC Depot. Our congratulations on achieving an 'A'
grading.
Our ' wandering Kiwi' Captain Tony Hitchings has success-
fully completed two further courses since our last notes. As he
finishes one course he just seems to have time for a few days
leave before starting the next. His wife is thinking of claim-
ing separation allowance.
STORES SECTION 26 FIELD
REGIMENT
THE Stores Section are still homeless! We are beginning to feel
a little like displaced persons, however the works services are
progressing—slowly but still progressing and will probably be
completed in time for our next reorganisation.
The sportsmen in the section have been in great demand of
late; Corporal Andy Carr plays football for the Workshop and
hockey for the Regiment; Private Gary Lester plays football for
both the Regiment and the Workshop whilst Privates TafE Gray
and Tony Potter kick the oval ball around for anyone who
asks them to, but both make the Regimental team regularly;
in fact Tony Potter was selected to go on a grand rugby tour
with the Regimental team. Well done. At times the ' boss' feels
like kicking the rugby, football, hockey and other sports
selectors, simply because he experiences difficulty in not letting
our work cause too much havoc with the sporting fixtures.
Corporal Paul Isbell has been taking an academic holiday
at 48 AEC studying for his EPC. He certainly appears to be
taking it all in as he has recently been seen browsing through
Lance Corporals Bayes and Overall operate from the QM Vehicle
on exercise.
Zl

Book number R0404