RAOC Gazette - page 91
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 |
Tony Bettaney who is off to 3 Division Ordnance Company. Also newly arrived is W02 Geoff Malthouse from Antwerp. WO I Tom Moore and Sergeant TalT Union are to be con- gratulated on their promotion. Issues Branch has also seen a lot of moves. Major Bob Martin has taken over from Major Stuart Hodge who has been posted to Brecon, Sergeant John Hood is departing for Hong Kong and Lance Corporal Paul Begg has left for Belize. Arrivals from Belize have been Sergeant Tart Stallard and Corporal Mai Scott. We are all madly trying to discover what the con- nection is between tours in exotic places and Issues Branch Bicester. Last but not least farewell to Lance Corporal Mark Foreman who is off to 1 Ordnance Field Park. DSM(A) raised three teams, including a ladies team, for the Bicester ' Hash' sponsored ' marathon.' Each team member had to run five miles starting and finishing at a local hostelry. Fortunately almost all of the participants realised that th^lrine for the odd pint of s frothy t o p ' was at the end of the race rather than the beginning. The ladies won their event. Cap- tain Tony Bettaney's team came fifth and Colonel Shephard's team eighth, raising £74 for local charities. The annual Horticultural Society exhibition was a great success and very high standards were achieved amongst the entries which exceeded four hundred in number. The proceeds of the raffles which are held periodically inXControl Division, enabled fifty one Christmas parcels to be sent) to needy families and old age pensioners in the district. Mr 'Lester Jarvis and his committee are to be praised for the hard work which they put into organising this event. Training Centre HEADQUARTERS AT long last we have come to the end of the fire-fighting and start to settle back into the routine of doing normal work again. During the nine weeks of the strike Headquarters staff have been involved in running the Central Headquarters responsible for all fire fighting in Surrey. The Commander has spent many hours travelling to the ten locations under his command and also visiting Wales, West Sussex and Kent where personnel of the Training Centre were on loan to other districts for fire fighting. The SOI (Lieutenant Colonel Day) who was the JSLO for Surrey, spent many hours on high level conferences with Dis- trict, Council Officials, Police Chiefs and Fire Chiefs, also a great deal of time visiting the troops under our command. The DAA and QMG (Major Cooke) and GS02 (Maior Baines) who were the controllers in the Operation Room when not at their desks, were on standby which meant sometimes twelve hours at their desks in the Operations room and the remainder of the time on the end of the telephone at home. The clerical support from the Headquarters was provided by WOl Johnston, Sergeants Thomson and Lawrence the latter being involved in the Operations room full time during the nine weeks involved with the other two combining their operations duties with deal- ing with the normal daily routine. Many thanks to the School of Ordnance, CVHQ, Train- ing Battalion and Depot, Apprentices College, Employment Training School, WRAC Company and TSAB who all provided watchkeepers and clerks to the Operations room. We hope to have photographs of the Operations room for the next issue. CENTRAL VOLUNTEER HEADQUARTERS IT was a case of all roads lead to Central Volunteer Head- quarters recently, when the Commander, Colonel Hind, held his annual Study Period, Most of the presentations were given by RAOC TAVR Officers with the staff of CVHQ RAOC providing the balance. The Study Period and dinner went exceptionally well, al- though on the first day most of those attending were still feel- ing rather ' heady* having met such distinguished guests as the DGOS, Major General Callan, Sir David Steel the Chairman of BP and Sir Patrick Nairne, Permanent Secretary to the Depart- ment of Health and Social Security, at the dinner night prior to the Study Period commencing. Corporals Tangen and Jones as usual, worked extremely hard ensuring that the practical side of security, bus escorts and prop providers went well: rumour has it that Corporal Tangen wants to wear his No. 2 dress belt ' bull' all the time! I wonder why the Chief Clerk Staff Sergeant Herron is still wearing a name tag, and walking around his office humming ** but study periods come but once a year'/* Training Branch are at present beavering away on final preparation for a weekend Camp at StrensalL the Camp is going to be so well attended with some three hundred TAVR Sponsored Unit Soldiers on training, that the RQMS, W02 Powell, reckons he may be forced to live in a hole! [ We hope that Sergeant Morris has now settled down in Headquarters 39 Brigade and that Lance Corporal Rolf 'Com- plete with sunglasses er sorry, without sunglasses, has started to rough it in Cyprus. Welcome to Sergeant Magee who is joining us as Chief Clerk Training Branch from BAOR. SCHOOL OF ORDNANCE A BIT of catching up is required this month to make up for the lack of recent contributions; I can only blame the Fire- men's^trike, the Christmas Festivities and my own short- comings. The beginning of November saw Mrs Lyn Warner partnered by Mrs Linda Fehilly win the Ladies Doubles at the South East District Badminton Championships. Mrs Warner serves both the students and permanent staff with their tea and coffee. Her serving at Badminton obviously matches her excellent service to the School. Well done! As the month progressed we. like the rest of the Armed Services, had our contribution to make to Operation Bur- berry. Enough said! December, as well as heralding in the usual quota of parties gave Sergeant Paul Webster's wife the opportunity of present- ing her husband with a daughter (Gayle), Mother, daughter and husbard are all thriving, The photograph shows the eight stalwarts who represented the School in the 1978 RAOC Cross Country Championships. We came fifth out of ten teams and all participants are now recovering, THE COMPETITORS Front row: Seumas Kerr, Ted Walcroft and Nigel Lampard. Back row: Bob Manners, Nick Bell, Scott Allin, Dudley Ells and Mike Murphy. TRAINING BATTALION AND DEPOT MAJOR TONY REES handed over command, to Major Ken Collins on posting to Headquarters BAOR and well deserved promotion to Lieutenant Colonel Captain Anthony Aggett has been posted to the world of the Green Beret and was relieved by Captain Mike Dalley. Lieutenants Bill Wiseman* Mark Wickham and John Campbell have joined the long courses selected for their career planning. Operation Burberry has finished and all our instant fire- men have returned to home territory having earned the thanks, appreciation and respect of the civilian population for a difficult job carried out with efficiency and cheerfulness. During the first two weeks of Operation Burberry this unit took on the fire cover responsibility for Cardiff. Swansea and Chatham. During the Christmas and New Year period we provided fire cover for the county of Sussex and a Mobile Fire Column of ten crews based at Maidstone. Major David Wheeler and SQMS Brian Davies are now in the decompression chamber, being wound down after two months manning our Operations Room, they have got used to — 314 — |
| Book number | R0246a |