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RAOC Gazette - page 67

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Publication date 1977
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Transcription ..-iiT-rently on detachment in Northern Ireland and appears to be
; r ' 'ying his tour in the Province. Soon to depart are Sergeant
;,; :*Magill to HQ BAOR and Lance Corporal Mike Charnley
: t he exotic fieshpots of Tidworth.
All these comings and goings have quite bemused W02
Rod Moor who now just hopes someone will turn up each
morning to make the tea, he is now consoling himself with the
prospect of a tour with the Staff Liaison team in Kenya how-
ever far away it may seem now,
It is necessary at this point to reflect on the recent meeting
of minds, over a pint or three, of the two military sections in
C and GS. It was Lieutenant Colonel Nick ReynelFs farewell
from the military members of the Branch and nothing more
must
be reported on the occasion for fear of incriminating
1
it .accent partygoers.
To avoid favouritism we must include a gallant band of
men, and women, who work in Urgent Issues Control and Unit
Locations. They are Sergeant John Hood who can be seen
looking for money with his newly acquired metal detector, it
has been suggested that he look in his pockets, he may then
remember to get a round in.
Next is Sergeant Rocky Daniels, previously referred to, and
regarded as a cricketer of some note. It was discovered that he
works here quite by accident, although for the last couple of
weeks
he has been setting up a Stores Section on a cricket
:,
P ch and doing a bit of stocktaking by counting runs,
Other members of the section are Corporal Phil Bushnell
wno we must welcome on transferring to the Corps from the
Scots Guards, Corporal Steve Wright currently sunbathing in
Gibraltar and Corporal Kevin Conner who has suddenly be-
come a keep fit fanatic, at least he gets to work on time.
Within Unit Enquiries Section three new arrivals can be
found; Corporals Mai Scott and Willy Baxter, a potential
transferee from the Royai Scots; he is demanding devolution for
the control section. The third new arrival is Private Nigel Ings
e\ RAPC who is also being summoned, as others previously
r ported, by the call of the willow.
Whilst new arrivals appear to have dominated this news-
leuer it must be concluded by the reporting of two more
arrivals; the ' posting people * have finally caught up with my
past and my first two Company Commanders have arrived,
Lieutenant Colonels Norman Stones and Graham Nichols, to
haunt me* We wish all new arrivals the best for their tours in
Bicester and farewell to our departing members and good wishes
wherever you may be going.
DSM{A) VEHICLE DIVISION CHILWELL
C R sincere apologies are extended to all those readers who
h,;ve been waiting in eager anticipation for the first contribution
from Vehicle Division DSM, We know exactly how dis-
appointed you must have been, on opening your May copy of
THE GAZETTE, to note our absence whilst at the same time being
treated to yet another example of the photogenic qualities of our
colleagues at Donnington,
We would wish our esteemed
readers to know that this is not the sole prerogative of our
Shropshire friends and we include in this issue a series of real
life shots of a few of our military staff, notably Colonel Paddy
Groves in his garden (with the recent rain some wit has
F isented him with a bag of rice for his 'paddy field'); Lieu-
tenant Colonel ' Shotgun * Tony May leading the * hunt' for
someone with a hand steady enough to operate his microfiche
readers; Lieutenant Colonel J. M. Watts with his handicap in
tow (!); Major Bob Slade holding up the squash courts (or
vice versa) after yet another evening battle with Major (Slim-
line) John Dobie, now the most popular Officer in UKLF since
being appointed Chairman of the Casting Committee. Lastly, a
captivating shot of WOl Tom Swann extracting himself from
the rear seat of a Hillman Hunter staff car, having failed yet
^ -in to persuade another OC that this can be done without
i al loss of dignity. (Unfortunately the editor declined to
publish these photographs on the grounds of lack of artistic
merit (understandable) and poor reproductive quality (also under-
standable when you know the source of the film)). Despite
these setbacks a further attempt will be made in the next
edition to include other members of our staff who hopefully
will pass the strict censorship currently being imposed,
Although militarily we are small in number, we feel that
we pull our weight in contributing to the many sporting
successes,
or failures, of COD Chilwell, Despite the fact that it
u l
' have been more adequately reported elsewhere, we feel
v
- rnust mention our contribution to the Chilwell Rugby team,
having provided nearly one-third of the players. Now that the
^easnn is over Captain Andrew Dexter is able to have a daily
head-tfcunt without the familiar excuse of * absent for rugby/
in fact it is good to see uniforms behind the desk again! We
are however, conscious of the part that they have played, and
delighted with the tremendous effort that they have put into
the team this season under the guidance of Staff Sergeant
Michael Tipper.
In the Base Organisation Golf Competition we again
provided from our meagre resources one third of the Officers
for the Chilwell team. Unfortunately we were not as successful
as the rugby players but it is rumoured that Lieutenant Colonel
Mike Watts has been approached to play golf for the Corps
sometime next month. (Not quite sure why this has been in-
cluded as he has already told everybody).
Recently we have said goodbye to Corporal Russell, on
posting to the Staff College, and also to Sergeant Saunders who
has left us to return to civilian life.
We have welcomed Sergeant Booth from BAOR who has
already established himself as a member of the Chilwell cricket
team. Unfortunately he has already had to leave us for six
weeks temporary duty at the Aldershot Army Display, In
addition we also have welcomed Corporal Robertson to the
Vehicle Branch from 19 OFP Colchester.
Training Centre
TRAINING BATTALION AND DEPOT
ANZIO PLATOON'S passing out parade was attended by a
large gathering of fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. The
parade started in brilliant sunshine and ended in torrential
rain. The inspecting officer was Lieutenant Colonel John Janes
of Employment Training School—was the sudden change of
weather due to him being out of favour with his superiors.
Rumour has it that an excellent evening was had by all in
Headquarters RAOC Sergeants' Mess on 6th May on the
occasion of the Regimental Dinner. The story that Major
Harry Lungley sprained his knee in the boat race requires further
investigation.
Training Company are well advanced in their planning for
the summer camp at Barry Buddon from 23rd July to 6th
August. Major Tony Rees was so overcome by the hospitality
of the Scots, aided by CSM Penrose, that he decided that the
exercise be called * Exercise Tartan Taff.'
Congratulations to: Lieutenant Malcolm Stanley and Lance
Corporal Darrel Free—a daughter each; Corporal Neal on a
' B ' Grading on the Skill-at-Arms Course and also his pro-
motion to substantive Corporal. Corporal Edwards and Lance
Corporal Franklin on gaining their Joint Services Colours for
Judo. Lance Corporal Franklin is to be commended on coming
second in the Army Individual Judo Championships and has
recently represented the Army in matches against the Navy and
RAF. The Army won both matches 9-0.
EMPLOYMENT TRAINING SCHOOL
A QUIET MONTH in the School really, in fact the Administra-
tion Officer managed to go on leave. This is mentioned be-
cause to his surprise, but nobody else's, it wasn't noticed. Per-
haps it was because our Super-Butcher, Captain Cliff Burwell,
took over and with his usual smoothy job, carried all before
him,
Special mention this month must be made of our Tailor
Training Branch. From 1st April the employment of Tailor
ceases to exist in the Corps but the Tailor Training Branch
continues in the School to train All Arms and Foreign and
Commonwealth students. The Branch was formed as a military
organisation in 1957 as part of 4 Trade Training Battalion,
W02 Joe Wade is the present and indeed the last Corps
Master Tailor, the post is to be civilianised shortly. We feel
rather sad to lose this extremely attractive and colourful em-
ployment in the Corps but ours is not to
The Butchers of the School are expected to achieve star-
dom in the near future. They have been asked to assist the
Army Catering Corps in the Jubilee Ox Roasting at Windsor in
June, The Butchers are * dressing the beasts' (I am assured
that
is the correct terminology but I would have thought it was
4
undress*) prior to the roasting and will also be on hand to
assist in the carving. The whole thing is being televised, so
who needs 'New Faces'! WOl Dave Cartwright has assumed
the mantle of Impressario and applications for personal
appearances, autographed photographs, etc, should be addressed
to him. For those who are not in show business, the two star
Butchers are Corporals Dave Summer and Dave Wilson, Readers
will note that the gory details of this task, so gleefully passed
to the author by the Butchers, have "been omitted for the more
delicate of our readers.
We say farewell this month to Captain Ted Curtis the
OIC Clerical Training who takes his expertise to the Barrack
Office Aldershot, at least their SD is guaranteed now. We wel-
Book number R0246