Back to Library Journals

RAOC Gazette - page 38

Image details

Corps RAOC
Material type Journals
Book page
Chapter head
Chapter key
Chapter number
Full title RAOC Gazette
Page number
Publication date 1978
Real page
Colour No
Grey No
Early date 1978
Late date 1978
Transcription &opaI &rnn> <0rtmante
Corpsi
TOje journal of tfte ftopal &rmp ©rlmancc Corp* anb &tmp ©rtmante g>ertric£*»
anb tfje ©fftrial ©rgan of tfje ftS#C $te*onation
jfebruarp 1973
Yolume 59,3Bo. 9
editorial
tCfie Cbttor'tf Notice*
Editor: COLONEL E. RIDGEWAY, OBE (Retd.J.
Treasurer; LIEUTENANT COLONEL H. A, MILLER, (Retd.).
SUBSCRIPTION RATES—HOME AND ABROAD
30p per copy, or £3.60 per annum, post free,
Orders for monthly sales should reach this oiflce by 9th day of
the month, accompanied by remittance for previous
month.
Cheques and Postal Orders should be made payable to
" Treasurer RAOC Gazette" and should be crossed.
CONTENTS.
The contents of THE GAZETTE are strictly
copyright
and all rights expressly reserved. The views expressed herein do
not necessarily
express the views of the Editor or the Corps,
therefore no responsibility will be accepted.
PHOTOGRAPHS.
If it is desired to illustrate news laith photographs, the photo-
grapher's name and his written permission to reproduce
must
accompany the pictures* to avoid infringement
of copyright.
ENGAGEMENTS, MARRIAGES, BIRTHS AND DEATHS NOTICES.
These -will be inserted free to all past and present members of
the Corps,
FOR SALE AND MISCELLANEOUS
NOTICES.
These must be submitted in the form in which it is desired
that they shall be published* Charges: £1 for the first five lines or
under, and 15p per line subsequently*
Charges must be pre-paid.
Box numbers will be allotted if asfeed for.
DEAD-LINE DATE FOR RECEIPT OF COPY.
The " Gazette " is published monthly about the 29th of each
months and all article^ station News Letters, etc., should reach the
Editor by the 29th of the month for publication a month
later.
" Letters to the Editor" and short news items will, however, be
accepted up to the 7th of the mantK
Copy should be typed, if
possible, and double spaced.
EDITORIAL OFFICE: RAOC SECRETARIAT, DEEPCUT, CAMBERLEY, SURREY.
(Telephone: Brookwood 4511, Ext. 516.)
3ftibex QTo 0t\)ex $age*
For the Record
Notices
Officers Club Annual Dinner
This was our Unit—7 OFP
Sports Report
Observations by Checker
A Year at Camberley
Rather Restructured
From Chelsea to Bicester
And here's a surprising team
Station News—Home
TAVR
Station News—Abroad
Association News
Postings and Promotions
266
268 and 300
269
270
271 and 273
272
274
275
276
278
280
288
289
298
299
THERE is no doubt that the two issues uppermost in the
soldiers mind today are the effects of the numerous defence cuts
of recent years and pay—though not necessarily in that order.
We still wrestle with the cuts ordered by the 1975 Defence
Review as well as those imposed by the 1976 White Paper.
For a variety of reasons, mainly to accommodate the loss of
manpower entailed, the Army decided to meet the field force
situation by restructuring—together with the loss of a number
of equipments either postponed or cancelled. Restructuring, so
often touched upon in newsletters, is now almost complete but
how well will it work? We are in fact watching a new Army
evolve—and not necessarily one which one would have through
choice. One of the last of our BAOR restructuring changes is
recorded on page 270 but understandably, with emphasis on the
past.
Being something of an optimist in these matters and yet
paradoxically, of the view that history tends to repeat itself,
I was particularly interested in a letter sent recently to a
national daily on this subject, quoting one published in 1909
which read as follows: —
The Army is not like a limited liability company, to be
reconstructed, remodelled, liquidated t and refloated from week
to week as the money market fluctuates. It is not an inanimate
thing, tike a house, to be pulled down or enlarged or structurally
altered at the caprice of the tenant or the owner; it is a living
thing. If it is bullied, it sulks; if it is unhappy it pines; if it is
harried, it gets feverish; if it is sufficiently disturbed, it will
wither and dwindle and almost die; and when it comes to this
last serious condition, it is only to be revived by lots of time
and lots of money. The author—Sir Winston Churchill.
On the highly emotive subject of pay; the already over-
stretched Services, having moved in once again to fill the breach
in times of industrial unrest, have by their efficiency, morale and
discipline, won for themselves considerable public support.
Perhaps, to be cynical, it is just a case, as Kipling wrote,
of Tommy this and Tommy that and Tommy go away—but
its thank you Mr Atkins when the band begins to- play.
On the other hand there is no doubt that the constitutional
constraint on the Services in stating their own case on pay
has been clearly helped by recent publicity. Comparisons are
drawn in the Press and, while one cannot reasonably argue
against the merit of pay restraint as an alternative to the
enormous problems of inflation, we can at least hope that in the
final analysis, the soldier gets at least as good a deal as those
who seek to gain advantage by using—or by threatening to use
—their so called industrial muscle,
No doubt we shall see.
THE
COVER
PHOTOGRAPH
IN Pensioners—Conductor Joe Thelwell and Sergeant
Bill Nicholls, visit Bicester and are taken on a trip
to the USAF Base at Upper Heyford. Here they meet
the Fl-11 and have quite a time . . . . . . see page 276.
— 265 —
Book number R0246a