RAOC Gazette - page 128
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1977 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1977 |
| Late date | 1977 |
| Transcription |
Departures were Corporal Dave Gunnell. Lance Corporal Pete Langridge and Privates ' Strop r Jones, John Kelly, Keith Bagot and Brian Dolton—a sixty per cent turnover during a period of six months. Fortunately we were left with enough stalwarts in the right places to provide the necessary continuity. We also recently gained two new small arrivals—congratulations to Jim and Loraine Hills-Avery and to Andy and Yvonne Hull on the birth of their respective daughter and son. 4 Division • • HEADQUARTERS RAOC ^ ^ ^ ^ ON 1st June they experienced, we think, ^ ^ | ^ ^ ^ an unique occasion in Headquarters 6 ^^H^^^k Armoured Brigade when WOsl Arthur ^ ^ H ^ ^ ^ B Brown and Geoffrey Howard were both •j^^^^^H appointed Conductor The certificate ^^^^^^^V they received was accompanied by a ^ ^ ^ ^ m ^ ^ r message of congratulations from the DGOS. ^•" • i •••J His message read: — "I am very pleased to know you have been appointed a Conductor RAOC. To reach this, the highest appointment for soldiers not only in the RAOC, but in the Army, reflects great credit on your Service to our Corps. The ancient and honourable tide of Conductor was first used in 1327 according to the Statute of Westminster of that date. There is also a record for 1544 showing that six Conductors of Ordnance were appointed in a Train of Artillery under the command of Sir Thomas Seymot. This honourable and prestigious appointment is now exclusive to the RAOC. I send you my warmest con- gratulations on having been selected for this historic appoint- ment, and offer my best wishes to you for the future" WOl Howard joined the Boys Company of the RASC at Aldershot in April 1955. He is currently the Superintendent Clerk with the Brigade Headquarters. WOl Brown joined the RAOC Apprentice College at Blackdown in May 1957 and is currently serving as the Brigade Ordnance Warrant Officer. To them both go our heartiest congratulations. Just the ticket. On a Sunday afternoon in May, in glorious sunshine, the RAOC Staff Band gave a concert in the Kurpark at Bad Salzufien. Well before the start all seats, some 1,000 of them, had been taken, hundreds were standing; the park was full to capacity. Captain Griffiths, Director of Music, cordially welcomed the audience in German, the language he used throughout the performance. More recently, Headquarters RAOC joined the rest of the Headquarters to travel to Helminghausen for the Headquarters 4 Division Summer Camp. The camp was along the lines of an inter departmental competition which included activities such as a long walk, canoeing, assault boats, swimming and orien- teering. The week began in bright sunshine—obviously arranged just to get us down there. The weather soon changed how- ever, leaving us all soaking as the rain arrived. Nevertheless, at this early stage, everyone was full of en- thusiasm and put their all into the fifty metre swimming tests and map reading instruction which were the first two events on the programme. Day two saw us orienteering, assault boating and canoeing. The orienteering was over an eight kilometre wooded course with thirteen checkpoints, Overall, out of the ten teams participating in the event, Headquarters RAOC finished a very creditable third. Wednesday morning saw us competing against arch rivals Headquarters REME in first the assault boat race, then an assault boat tug-of-war followed, by a canoe race. The first and last events were the ones that counted towards the team event and the score finished at one event all, REME winning in the assault boats by sheer brute force and then Headquarters RAOC reversing the decision in the more skilful and graceful event of the canoe race. The afternoon was devoted entirely to the first half of the long walk, a distance of thirteen miles over road and country to be covered in three hours. Every three or four miles, normally at the top of a hill, there would be a checkpoint at which ten general knowledge questions were to be answered by each of the teams. You know the kind of thing * What in- crease in range as a percentage does a twenty seven foot mast give on a VHF radio?', good Ordnance stuff, (Read this column next month for the answer—it will take me that long to find it.) The final leg of the long walk was covered the following morning. Headquarters RAOC arrived back at the camp site just in time to catch the lunch meal, pack up and climb, or should I say be lifted onto, the transport back to Herford. Those missing results for you, we finished third in the canoeing, third in the long walk and somewhat surprisingly first in the quiz which put us out of the ten teams in a creditable second position overall. We say farewell to our long serving Chief Clerk AQ W02 Colin Bawden on posting to Afcent, to our Famto Sergeant, Roy Dyer who has left us for the peace and quiet of Blackdown. We welcome their replacements W02 Bob Bush from Head- quarters Northern Ireland and Sergeant Leo Green from Tid- worth* Finally we welcome Jason, new born son of Lance Corporal and Mrs Danny Welch, who weighed in at BMH Rinteln the other day, congratulations to the parents. The team coming in third in the annual Hoageven Black Watch Marches held in Holland. 20 ORDNANCE FIELD PARK THE Unit marchers have recently returned from Holland where they participated in the Annual Hoogeven Black Watch Marches. The team distinguished themselves by coming third in the twenty kilometre march. This competition was not a race but one to assess leadership, morale and uniformity of dress and marching. The lads who took part in the March thoroughly enjoyed themselves as they were looked after exceptionally well. As usual we have been very busy with exercises. The first being Exercise Double Take. On this exercise we had four German NCOs, an American Officer, Captain Martin Harding and an NCO, Sp4 George Frapp. The Americans had a shock 96 — |
| Book number | R0246 |