RAOC Gazette - page 192
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 |
The Division now breaks for what it considers to be a well-earned Easter stand down* We look forward to a period of what the GOC describes as ' Retrenchment/ Hopefully the pressures, including those on zips, will ease, but one wonders. Watch this space! 1 in his marriage to Claire, after taking over the appointment of AO from the departing Major Swift, Major Swift now moves onto quieter climes of the Depot for the Food Technology Course. HEADQUARTERS STAFF CLERKS FOR the last few weeks it has been noted by the G Branch clerks that a grey haired man walks by the office every day and disappears. When challenged by one of the clerks it turned out to be the Superintending Clerk, WOl Bob Skenner- ton. It's a good job G clerks can take the abuse I G Branch has spent the last three weeks on exercise and Corporal Neil Cox has got rather attached to his combat kit (I think he likes the colours). We keep having to check behind his desk in case he has * dug in/ After Rosen Montag, Corporal Phil Sked found a trilby hat on the bonnet of his car, we are checking the papers every day for missing persons. Sergeant Glyn Davies appears from his hide now and again muttering something about Gurkhas and Light Infantry. We just don't know what he means, but the only sympathy he gets ( from the clerks is Tuff luck Sarge/ Lance Corporal 'Crowby' Crowhurst is his normal self but if we mention too much about him this note would definitely be censored! Private Phil Walker is up in the clouds as he is expecting his fiancee over for Easter. Private Jock Conway wants to know if she has got a sister (we've heard that one before). I suppose for once we had better mention Corporal Mark Trower in Registry. It is rumoured that he has just signed on as he is making a terrific profit from Staff Sergeant Alan Jensen. He kindly buys stamps for him but never appears to get any change. AQ Branch has grown since the last GAZETTE as we have had Private John Groom posted in from the Army School of Recruiting at Woolwich and have managed to prise Private Tom Orrock out of his sinecure in the Registry and have thrown him into the hurly burly of life in AQ Operations. Talking of Operations, Staff Sergeant Mike Dawson is fast becoming known as the Invisible Man—with the constant stream of exercises taking him out in the field these days he is rarely seen in the Headquarters. Corporal Tafif Humphreys has acquired that comfortable, satisfied look associated with the fact that he has become a * pad ' again and now has his family installed in quarters. New arrivals are Privates Rubie and Lidster from the Ap- prentices College, ORDNANCE COMPANY AFTER nearly three weeks of rest and recuperation since the last bout of exercises we were once again in the ring with three exercises in two weeks. The first round in the second contest was Exercise Staff Ride which even though it was a one day logistic demonstration brought its casualties with Staff Sergeant Povey executing the ' Coup de Grace' on a sick Ten Tonner and Private Rowarth throwing his cam net on the autobahn in a fit of gay abandon. The second round was Exercise Shanks Pony, which involved the Divisional logistic units in a competition for the Escape and Evasion Trophy. Against strong competition we won the Trophy and earned the congratulations of both the GOC and CRAOC, The exercise was blessed with good weather which made it very enjoyable. It will be a source of many ' war stories' for many moons, such as Private ' Hound' Baskerville being savagely attacked by his puttee in a dark and mysterious tunnel. We have just gone out on the third and final round in this bout which is Exercise Seconds Out. It came as rather a shock to Privates Richardson and Greenwood who only arrived the afternoon before deployment to find themselves on exercise in the early hours of the next day. Also congratulations are due to the Second-in-Command, Captain Mob ley, for solving the driver shortage by getting his HGV 2 just in time to drive on the exercise. On the sporting side* congratulations to Sergeant Dillow and Lance Corporal Barraclough on doing so well in the RAOC BAOR Table Tennis Championships with a first and third in the singles and runners up in the doubles competitions and to the football team in recording a five to four win against 115 Provost Company. Also the hockey team has scored two more goals while unfortunately conceding seven. Those departing this month are Corporals MacDonald and Townend and Privates Ford, Strong and Trueman. In addition to Privates Richardson and Greenwood we welcome Corporal Martin, Lance Corporals Thompson and Wakelin, Lance Corporal Page ACC, and Private Quartermain ACC. We would also like to congratulate Captain Bettaney for successfully fitting 4 Armoured Division — HEADQUARTERS RAOC THERE have been many changes within Headquarters RAOC over the past few months and the month of March has been no exception. We bid farewell to Captain Frank Steer our Adjutant and wel- come in his place Captain Charlie White from Northern Ireland. We also wel- come Mrs Jan Brown our new C4 Clerk; our regular visitors will notice a change in the coffee flavour—for the better. Our Mk 2 DOWO, WOl Terry Hammond, and the Warrant Officer (Mats), W02 Keith (Bwana) Heritage, have been away on Exercise Snow Queen and have both returned, tired, exhausted, browned off; in other words ' no change/ The CRAOC's driver Private Jackson is busily getting his No. 1 Dress uniform ready for his big day in May!! No he is not going to Buckingham Palace, he's being wed! The weather in Herford has taken on a real wintery look with snow feet deep and icy winds blowing everyone into their warm offices. Believe it or not, we have an Irishman teaching Scottish country dancing to the local German population, which causes a little misunderstanding as you can well appreciate with the locals. SO SUPPLY DEPOT THESE notes are our first to be submitted under the Head- quarters RAOC 4 Armoured Division column as our long association with Headquarters RAOC Corps Troops East ended on 1st April. Corporal Lennie Loughran can be forgiven if he thinks that it is all happening to him. Firstly he broke his arm, when he forgot that he was closing a window and tried a * dry dive' in- stead, and in the next post there was a posting order for a six months' unaccompanied tour in Cyprus. Not to be outdone Corporal Mick Bishop returned from Exercise Snow Queen with a knee injury, which necessitated his admission into the BMH Hannover and a further run on its already depleted plaster stocks. Lance Corporal Pete Stewart managed to squeeze in a five weeks driving course at Moenchengladbach and arrived back having successfully passed the basic driving course. Our sporting Chief Clerk, Sergeant John Singh, produced his annual trophy for the third successive year from the RAOC BAOR Table Tennis Championship in which he reached the semi-finals of the singles competition and he followed this up by winning the Plate Competition in the 1 Division Champion- ships. Welcome to W02 David Cartwright who has joined us from the Employment Training School to take over the post of Depot Superintendent and farewell to W02 Ernie Hext, who carries all our best wishes with him on his impending retirement. STORES SECTION 39 FIELD REGIMENT ALTHOUGH rather low in numbers due to four of our mem- bers assisting the Regiment in the * Emerald Isle * for four months, we are still managing to keep up with all the various workshop requests. Sergeant Sean Moore is at present enjoying a change of scenery. He is running the Operation Banner Families Office, organising outings, films and other such nice things. Every time he is seen he seems to have one more grey hair than was normal. At the time of writing these notes we have said farewell to Corporal Graham Seymour to 22 Light Air Defence Regiment on promotion to Sergeant and to Lance Corporal Pete Carter who is going to try his hand in civilian life. We wish them both all the best. At the same time we welcome Corporal Steve Ball from Ashchurch and Lance Corporal Jock Strathie from Detmold. ORDNANCE COMPANY WE think providence shone on us during the month; we started it up to our knees in snow dreading the thought of two glorious weeks in camp Vogelsang on the Belgium border. For those of you who have suffered (sorry I mean enjoyed) Vogelsang you will understand what I mean. We left Detmold still in the grips 394 — |
| Book number | R0246a |