RAOC Gazette - page 65
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1980 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1980 |
| Late date | 1980 |
| Transcription |
Accounting, Location and On-Line Management of Equipment (SALOME for Short). If it fails, whose head will end up on the silver platter? Still, at over six foot he can afford to lose six inches! We say farewell to Major Humphrey who has arrived safely in Hong Kong and welcome Major Nick Carter whom he relieved. Congratulations to Alan Griffin who stays with us on commissioning and to Major Mundy, WOs2 Hoyland and Corbey on their promotions. Training Centre CENTRAL VOLUNTEER HEADQUARTERS THE RAOC Rifle Association Skili-at-Arms Meeting was held at Ash Ranges and the CVHQ RAOC Conference Room is full of silver cups as a result of the resounding success of the RAOC TA Sponsored Units Shooting Team. For the third time, Lance Corporal Weatherby has won the RAOC Individual Rifle Championship, as well as being first in four other matches. To list all the successes of the team at the meeting would take almost a page of THE GAZETTE, so we will just say to them " Congratulations and Well Done." The training staff have returned from Cyprus with their duty free spirits and cigarettes—which they kept to themselves! After two weeks basking in the sun they are all having time off to get acclimatised to the weather in this country. Congratulations to Staff Sergeants Dadd, McManamon, Benson and Smith on being selected for promotion. TRAINING BATTALION AND DEPOT WE were all saddened this month by the death of Private Alan Moy following a training run. Our sympathy goes to his family and friends. The Director of Army Training, Major General Walsh, visited and spent much of the day with Training Company talk- ing to recruits and staff. Anzio Platoon passed out sixteen strong after being kept moving for the past twelve weeks by Lieutenant Alan Lloyd and Sergeant Brian Lambert. Gibraltar Platoon won the Training Company Athletics. This was a good lead into the Training Centre Meeting. There were fine performances by Corporals James and Hollows, Lance Corporal Barry and Sergeant Lambert; the Unit were runners-up in the competition. We've seen little of the Second-in-Command, Major Dennis Ford recently. First he was away offshore sailing to foreign climes (Isle-of-Wight actually) and then he claims to have been involved with the Corps Skill-at-Arms Meeting. Our shooting team is almost completely new this year and put up a good show at the Corps Shoot. Congratulations in particular to Sergeant Ricky Smith on picking up some silver. Oh dear, Oh dear, where are our up and coming young Corps sailors. Second-in-Command WRAC Company, Second Lieutenant Fiona Gray, carried off the honours from the RAOC Elementary Sailing Regatta held at Bicester. We welcome W02 Colin Longstaff as our new Chief Clerk and Sergeant Learmonth and Corporal Egan to Training Com- pany. Mobile Display Team A GOOD month for dispersing the Blackdown Blues (Or Is It The Deepcut Doldrums!) in that I was happily absent on duty for much of the time. My travels took me to Cardiff, where I assisted with the Careers for the 80's Exhibition at Sophia Gardens. This was a well organised show, and attracted several thousand school leavers. I was ably assisted on this exhibition by Sergeant ' Paddy' Devine, and Lance Corporal Les Pawsey, both of 1 AIDU at Hereford, who did a sterling job—often under difficult con- ditions. During my time in Cardiff, the remainder of the Display Team began the Summer Tour, starting on the Mayday bank holiday. Since that time, Lance Corporal Johnathan Heffernan has had his hands full, trying to keep vehicles on the road, with a constant succession of breakdowns. We were very pleased to welcome a new member who is well known in Corps rugby circles. Corporal Chris Christopher joined us and was very soon immersed in the routine admini- stration side of the job, prior to going ' in the field' with the team. Chris is with us hopefully, for the next two years. Our two super heroes, Biggies Blackdown and Snoopy Mac- Gregor kept the flag flying at the Biggin Hill Air Fair, by actually piloting trainer planes, at great personal expense. Is there anything they won't do?. The latter part of the month saw the Corps Recruiting and Liaison Officer Major David Elliott, the Officer Recruiting Liaison Officer, Colonel Bob Allen (Retd), and yours truly (PG) on recruiting Liaison duties, in of all places, Northern Ireland!. In our short stay, I'm sure we must have seen more of the Province than the average soldier does on full tour> as we visited schools, colleges and Universities as far afield as Bel- fast, Ballymena, Londonderry, Strabane, Omagh and Armagh. It was also very much an ' almost' week, as we almost saw the Giants Causeway, we almost visited a local factory, and Colonel Allen almost bought a new suit, having torn his own during a presentation. However, time and the weather did not permit such luxuries as this. We did, however, see one of the few places on earth where if you look due North, you can see the South (Magilligan Point) and we did get a glimpse of the Maze. The reception we, and the Staff Band received at the schools was tremendous, and made the visit well worth while. Many thanks to CRAOC, SLO, Captain Ted Jukes, all Headquarters Northern Ireland and SLO Northern Ireland Staff who worked so hard to make the visit run smoothly. The team are at present at Liverpool for the Centenery celebrations, and have recently been joined by Lance Corporal Ziverts of Commando Logistic Regiment, and Private Drohan of Bicester. To each we extend a warm welcome. ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ f^""^j£s^*^l I r^J§P I I ^HSK^^I I I (ifwwM? I % ft\ \lwKrf m \ \ v l l M x. v\2/ M ^ k 2ejr^r ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ years since the day Norfhern Ireland HEADQUARTERS RAOC THERE seems to be a spate of Anniversary Celebrations of late, the Railways-, the R a ' l w a y Catering (wonder what there is to celebrate here! Stale sandwiches devoid °£ t a e s m a u " piece of cheese? Week old meat Pies?). m e Ulster Defence Regiment n o w ten vears °id— ant * now f ort y ye af s since Dunkirk! Why mention all this you may ask? Well it's just a lead in to the most important anniversary of all: It's ten our writer of notes wrote his first contri- bution to THE GAZETTE. Major Ceneral Lee takes the salute at the Apprentices College Passing-out Parade. It did cross our mind that Parkinson or Frost would be queueing up to get him on their chat show, but they obviously have less important people to deal with like say the Prime Minister. Anyway we decided to deal with it on a DIY basis and sent in one of our keen young Officers to talk to the great man. It went something like this. Keen Young Officer—I understand you have been writing THE GAZETTE Notes for ten years. How interesting! You must enjoy writing? Him—(abruptly) I don't. KYO—Then why do it? H—Someone's got to. At this point the KYO thinks 'this isn't going very well, I'll try a new approach.' KYO—Most people seem to think you do them very well! H—That's because they are afraid they may get the job themselves, in any case I'm a genius. |
| Book number | R0404 |