RAOC Gazette - page 258
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 |
STORES SECTION I FIELD WORKSHOP HEME v 1£ start this quarters notes with a sad farewell to Captain A. I Moore, who has returned to UK (work, study and all that), / :'ter spending over eighteen years in the Army he arrived here s. me years ago, proud of the fact that his ' Field' experience with the RAOC was almost nil Now some two years later he leaves us with his record almost intact. We wish Captain and Mrs Moore all the best and hope everything goes well for them in the future. In lieu of Captain Moore we have receipted and already put to stock our new OC Captain L. A. MacEwan from Donnington. As always ' New brooms sweep clean ' the new boss is no exception to the rule. It is rumoured that Sergeant Render has been nominated to attend the next horticultural course at our local RAEC centre. The new OC is from the 1 -nd of the thistle and for this we are eternally grateful to l.AOC Records for at last we have someone who can translate the exotic language spoken by Private Jock Connell (a right chip off the * Burns' block), About to depart this land of the living is the eldest of the Purkins clan (Little Steve) who is off to 48 Company, for • Experience * only. On hearing the news Steve's first action was to look for his passport and fill in his leave pass in the same breath, He then spent a fortune on the telephone informing 4 his family throughout Germany of his luck.' At the time of writing he still has two months before he leaves us but has r'ready started his farewell parties. On the sporting side this seasoft, the section has always supported the Workshop teams well in the past and are in there " plugging * again at all sports—Taff Blyth, Paul Logan, Steve- Purkins and Steve Butcher at rugby. Q Hinson, Sergeant Render, Alan Mayoh, Jocks Wilson and Connell in the foot- ball team. Paul Pratt is in the cross country team and last but not least Captain MacEwan in the hockey team. Who Works? STORES PLATOON 71 AIRCRAFT WORKSHOP HAVING cleared the backlog caused by summer camp, life ; n the Stores Platoon has returned to a more sedate pace, but not so our social activities. The Platoon Bar-b-q was held in a very picturesque location near the village of Hornoldendorf on the outskirts of Detmold. The sun came out for the occasion and the food, ably prepared by our galloping gourmets, Sergeants Frank O'Brien and Mick Mayes, was excellent if a little well done, The children were occupied with games of football and rounders while the adults took advantage of the facilities offered by our barman Lance Corporal Jock Cameron who managed to find a stream to keep the beers nice and cool- Sergeant Willie Clyesdale, our marching member of the "*latoon, has worn out a considerable amount of boot leather m the past month attending marches in both Holland and Belgium. He also took part in the Nijmegen Marches in which his team finished twelfth out of eighty five entries. Congratulations to our OC, Captain Eric Pitchforth, on his promotion which he celebrated by briefly taking over the No. 1 spot on the squash ladder from Staff Sergeant Dave Tandy, who has since regained the coveted position. Private Pete Mundy revisited our summer camp area, Schweinfurt, recently, where he took part in an American/ German ten kilometre march and was presented with an at- active medal depicting a portrait of the US President. Pete low boasts he is the only British soldier in possession of such a medal. Anyone disagree? A squash match against 20 Ordnance Field Park resulted in a decisive win for the Platoon. The match was played on the same day as the workshop rugby team beat 20 Ordnance Field Park by nineteen points to sixteen. We have said farewell to Sergeant Jones who has left us to become the FAACO Sergeant of 651 Squadron AAC. The Platoon has lost a first class athlete in Sergeant Jones who recently took the Travers Clarke BAOR four hundred metres • tie for the second year in succession. We wish him and his tamily well and welcome Sergeant McPhee and his family. Fortress Headquarters Gibraltar THE Technical Inspection has come and gone, and our in- specting officer Lieutenant Colonel R. Ellis the y Deputy In- 6 spector left Gibraltar slightly bemused with our way of life! As well as visiting all around the Rock he even managed to get a glimpse of the inside as FOWO took him on one of his Lower St Michael Tours.' Ponderous caverns, (not open to ihe public because of the danger!) which reach into the heart of Gibraltar and are truly beautiful. Not all see the beauty however as they become more engrossed in clinging on to the ropes and just surviving! FOWO must have been confident of a good report because he returned the Deputy Inspector safe and sound (and slightly warm!) to the surface. It was a pity Major Ross couldn't have joined the party but he ' accidentally' hurt his hand the day before! t For those old Gibraltar hands it is sad to note that we are not on summer routine this year and have to work all day throughout the summer heat. Tuf Ere Innit? British Forces Hong Kong JU^A ' | HEADQUARTERS ^/Tfar"5p* jfl% I THIS week has seen the wel- ^ _^<^y^y \ £ I come drop in humidity, which BiflS£/ * a 9 R £ ^ H H ^ H l forecasts three p l e a s a n t mont ^^ffwrj ^rfftTFT^^^^^^k winter. A ew h s ay3 before neavv rain was •HBE^ jdSmr^fSaKBGm | ff^ N l I &?£• Gr^^L I ^^ ft&S* ^ ^ °^ a so m u c n ^^wiff * n o t a appreciated, but j L ^ ff e ct the water Jg&*a> J restrictions which continue into their fifth month. Major Tony Winton, our DADOS RATS and POL, has now returned from his travels in which he visited Brunei on duty and Malaya on leave. His gallant attempt to continue his progress with a trip to Nepal was thwarted by an authority which feels that the presence of our new ADOS and the In- spector RAOC in Nepal at that time provides adequate RAOC representation. Ordnance Branch was represented in a very competitive four-a-side soccer competition and although the team failed to qualify for the finals, it remained undefeated. An excellent goalkeeper was discovered in ' George,' Shum Cho Chi, while the remaining members of the team had their performances and goal scoring ability aptly described by WOl Mick Garrod. Unfortunately the obscenity laws prevent us reporting his pithy remarks in full. Brigadier Lawrence-Archer and Major Freddie Cantrell visited the Colony recently to ensure that the Ammunition Sub-Depot on Stonecutters Island was still manned—a matter of some dispute. Their visit was a hectic one both in and out of working hours and they left exhausted but, we hope, happy. Our DDOS, Colonel John Styles, leaves us at the end of September on posting. We are having trouble convincing him that Didcot is a much nicer place than Hong Kong! His successor is Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Richardson from BAOR. COMPOSITE ORDNANCE DEPOT ASK anyone in Hong Kong what they want most of all and it is fairly certain that they will reply ' rain/ Not for its own sake, but as a therapeutic balm against the seemingly endless heat. Strained air-conditioning systems threaten to give up the ghost and the typhoons seem intimidated by Customs and Excise and steer well clear. The Orienteering season is upon us once more, courtesy of the myth that the mean average temperature drops about this time of the year (and seven months of continual heat is mean). This is quite a challenging sport in Hong Kong where the only 'flat' areas are twenty stories high or being used to test to the full the destructive capacities of the internal com- bustion engine. However, for those who hail from more Northerly climes there is a certain pale pastel reminiscence in the mountains and the shady cool water stone courses. If one forgets the inter- minable flies and the packs of decidedly unfriendly black Chows; looks upon the arid dryness with an unjaundiced eye— then one could almost be in the Dales or the Trossachs—al- most. Idle, passing speculation on the source of these mountain streams is likely to bring the answer down upon your head— they come straight out of the sky, without too much preamble. Plastic covered maps are mandatory equipment. When the course is finished one is inclined to feel as if the map was not the only thing that had been wrapped in plastic. Amazingly, although not marked on any map, and no matter how remote and forbidding the area, tie average com- petitor always manages to find at least one local representative of San Miguel Breweries. Our Annual Personal Weapons Test has proved once more that the pen is mightier than the sword and that accuracy of shooting will not transcend heat haze, sun stroke and de- hydration—our story and we are sticking to it On the 2nd September the new Corporals Club was opened in Osborn Barracks. Although the manager of the Hong Kong 197 — |
| Book number | R0246 |