RAOC Gazette - page 168
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 |
and are now reorganised as Supply Com- panies. Good luck to the RAAOC as they advance into their fourth quarter century. THIS NEW NO. 2 DRESS FOR OFFICERS RAAOC I HAVE just been given a copy of a new journal launched by the Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps, called " Ordnance/* This is a very attractively produced publication which has achieved a fine balance between unit notes and professional articles. It also has a cover in full colour showing on this, the first issue, an officer of Australian Ordnance in the uniform of 1903. Inside the maga- zine, my attention was attracted to four items in particular First and by far the most important item, is the announcement of our Australian sister Corps's Seventy Fifth Anniversary, happily coinciding with Her Majesty The Queen's Silver Jubilee, You will recall in this connection the exchange of messages reprinted in THE GAZETTE of November last year. Congratulations to the RAAOC on the occasion and on the accompanying honour—the approval by the Queen that the Corps should carry a Sovereign's Banner. This distinction is without precedent in the British Army and is peculiarly Australian. It is hoped that the Banner will be formally presented sometime this year and I look forward to seeing reports of what will undoubtedly be a memorable occasion. The RAAOC Officers Club has marked the Anniversary by presenting the RAAOC Centre Officers Mess with a most striking silver centre piece. This is in the form of a globe resting on three field artillery cannon (or pieces of ord- nance) and surmounted by a reproduction of the Corps badge. Around the plinth are the badges of the various Australian Corps represented in Supply. Now here I am afraid that I must plead guilty to insularity and confess that I do not know a great deal about the reorganisation undergone by the Logistic Corps in Australia, However, I note that the pro- fessional head of the RAAOC is now styled the Director General of Supply and that most of the Corps's resources of men and materiel are contained within Logistic Command. Although this sounds rather like 'Andover,' I imagine that in fact it is rather different. I hope that someone will give us a description of the new organisation and perhaps compare it with our own. However, one item of news in this connection (and the fourth which I particularly noticed) was clear— Australian OFPs have accompanied their British counterparts into the history book I AM grateful to a correspondent for the following recent exchange of letters between a Chief of Staff and a DOS in a certain headquarters which I am delighted to publish without further comment: LOOSE MINUTE DOS NEW PATTERN SHIRTS FOR SIMIAN OFFICERS 1. The new issue shirts are not designed for Simian Officers which is a pity be- cause both the Chief of Staff and myself are of that ilk, 2. The Chief of Staff would like to know what you are doing about it. He is seeing the QMG next month and intends raising this lengthy problem with him. 3. Any suggestion of surgery to ease our problem will not be appreciated as there are long term advantages in this affliction—such as scratching inaccessible areas. MA/COS COS NEW PATTERN SHIRTS 1. As you will know all people (including officers) can be physically categorised into Lhree basic types. a. Endomorphs (Small, fat usually idle officers). b. Mesomorphs (Medium sized well built, usually intelligent officers useful in the field). c. Ectomorphs (Tall, thin, energetic officers, almost invariably fitted for the highest command). 2. It appears that the new pattern shirt was designed by and for endomorphs, who have always secretly envied ectomorphs. However, the staff officers charged with implementing the endos' policy were all mesos' and injected several intelligent and practical alternatives into the endos* policy. For the sake of brevity we give you only two of these alternatives here: a. When wearing No. 14 Dress (Shirt Sleeve Order) the length of sleeve is immaterial, if you will pardon the pun. However, when wearing No. 2 or No. 13 Dress (Woolly Pully) it is well 4 known that many officers prefer to shoot a cuff/ The arrangement at Annex A can then be adopted. As you will see, only a collar, a piece of front and two cuffs are worn, joined ingeniously by several pieces of elastic. This not only produces an adjustable sleeve length but enables a consider- able saving to be made on laundry bills, b. A more mundane suggestion is that any officer on whom the^tandard shirt is a poor fit may be measured by the Regimental tailor for a made to measure shirt. If the Quartermaster then enters the measurements on AFH 1119 (Special size roll) and attaches, two copies of that form to a normal \ demand, on Bicester, the made to measure shirts will be supplied at the normal repayment price, Male officers should be careful to use only AFH 1119 and NOT AFH 1118 which is the Special size roll for QARANC and WRAC corsetry garments. 3. You may also like to know that there are three modifications currently being made to the design of the new shirt. It is being lengthened, increased in girth and collar stiffening is being reduced slightly. Director of Ordnance Services NEW ARMY UNIFORM A SHORT notice in the January GAZETTE this year mentioned the planned trials of a new parade uniform which might be introduced generally in 1982. The Daily Telegraph of 30th December last year had it that this will be dark green and that it will be standard wear throughout the Army for soldiers and officers alike. Major Digby Smith of the Corps, whom I have mentioned in this column before, had it in a book he has recently pub- lished ('The British Army 1965-80/ Osprey 1977) that the uniform might con- sist of dark khaki tunic and stone coloured trousers. I reckon the green suit will win, but I echo other observers in wondering how the Foot Guards and the Scottish Division in particular are going to fit in with this new standardisa- tion without losing their well-known sar- torial characteristics, 374 — |
| Book number | R0246a |