RAOC Gazette - page 297
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 |
who shall remain nameless were seen on the way back to Bielefeld suffering from headaches. Corporal Paddy Moore's headache required two aspirins, our nameless friend's head- ache required four stitches! Latest G Air Proverb: Fighter Pilots Arrange It, Staff Clerks Do It Better. AQ Operations, with the rest of the Headquarters* deployed on Exercise Autumn Sales. The exercise was handled in the quiet efficient manner one has com-i to expect from Corps Rear Headquarters j the highlight being the night ferrying of Corps Rear over the Rhine by the Bundeswehr Amphibious regiment. Endex came unexpectedly on Saturday evening. The news obviously did not reach all participants, as later that night your contributor stumbled over three or four conscientious members of Circle 1 simulating NBC casualties with a remarkable degree of realism; a realism so well portrayed that the symptoms (NODUFF) lasted well into the following morning. On return to barracks we bade farewell to Lance Corporal Neil Cox and offer a belated welcome to his replacement Lance Corporal Steve Morby. AQ Coord said goodbye to Staff Sergeant Bob Fletcher who left for North West District and welcomed Staff Sergeant John Welsh from HQ AFNORTTL May we all take this opportunity to send Seasonal Greet- ings to all past and present members of the Corps. ORDNANCE BRANCH ALL are now safely in the fold—Orange ones and all—follow- ing leave, and Exercise Autumn Sales. The Exercise was held in and around the wine-growing Trier area, and the Ord Branch sponge society,—some drink, some store, some just sponge— duly set out festooned with corkscrews, Alas the only one to return bearing a bottle—of wine—was Sergeant Alan Mellitt, who had sneaked 'orf to a Supermarket rather than return empty-handed. Lance Corporal Sam Snodgrass—Driver Extraordinaire to the DDOS—lost the Brigadier's boots; after a half-hour search, involving all hands, they were discovered—on the Brigadier's feet—when he returned from breakfast. The Bath Unit set itself up at the end of the Nurburgring, anyone who couldn't do a lap in 12.7 seconds, didn't get a Barf. Staff Sergeant Jim Gleeson was told, in no uncertain terms, of the difference in pronunciation of the word ' Bath,* between North and South; and also told where to put his towel. Actually, Brother Jim spent most of the Exercise on his hands and knees in front of the Officers, he said he was marking the lower part of the map, but some have grave doubts 1 Captain John Cottington was leaning most nonchalantly against the Operation Wagon door, when it suddenly opened; he romptly fell out; landing on Major John Regan who was usy giving a notional location to the Brigadier AQ. Major Donald MacCoIl joined a conference; on sitting down he took the curtain and half the map with him. He then snuggled into a comer against an uncovered fuze box, whilst an SMG was hanging nearby. The resulting sparks covered a multitude of most illuminating remarks from the rest of the company, For the followers of statistics amongst you, Sergeant Alan Mellitt consumed 1,4 cwt of peanuts over nine days. Jo-Jo may have a companion sooner than they think. They won this one—but, only because the Orange Com- mander was left behind; and whilst you were away, Maggie had three days off on the strength of new ration cards. E 1st Division A HEADQUARTERS Sergeant Paul Swainson can't seem to make up his mind whether to play or umpire hockey and Private Dave Dewar emerges occasionally from the mass of files and letters to photo- graph people and to let us know that he is still here. Finally, DOWO did manage to get his feet warm on the last day of the exercise but it took two sleeping bags, a pair of socks and a Mayfair to do it! 7 ORDNANCE FIELD PARK THE 28th September saw the Unit set out on our last FIX prior to the formation of 1 Armoured Division Ordnance Com- pany. As exercises go it was the usual hectic pattern of events- move, deploy, move again. The weather was fortunately kind and gave us a good opportunity of seeing some of the country- side of Lower Saxony. Our last location was suitably near to Celle to allow our wives and many of our older children to visit us in the field and to see us working in a less usual en- vironment. The comments on the tea provided were most favourable—congratulations to the cooks!—and it somewhat gave away the secret as to how well we eat in the field! More recently Captain O'Connell and Messrs Hesketh, Outhwaite, Braidford, McClennen, Evans and others have been exploring the Rhine and Moselle valleys on exercise Autumn Sales, A more interesting area to be in at the peak of the grape harvest is hard to imagine! Detachments still feature widely with Lance Corporal Heeps now acting as driver for CRAOC at Verden, Private Hutt on a bakery course in the UK and Private Ryan ACC, who has gone.to Berlin for three weeks to help out on the catering for the Tattoo. We shouldn't forget either, Private Burton with the Joint Services Parachute Centre at Sennelager and Second Lieutenant Lloyd who was detained in BMH with a suspected appendicitis but he miraculously recovered and was returned intact! During the period we had a most successful All Ranks Dance and the Basketball team has started training. For the future our eyes are focussed on the Annual Administration-visit by the Brigade Commander and the inevitable spate of Staff Inspections that go with it! In signing off we welcome our new CSM Brian Patchitt and say farewell to Dwight Gumbs, and finally we warmly congratulate Private and Mrs Tamplin on the birth of Michelle and Corporals Outhwaite and Ettridge and Lance Corporal Potter on their respective promotions. 11 ORDNANCE FIELD PARK IT would perhaps not be surprising that a casual visitor^ to the Unit could leave thinking that the imminent restructuring in- volved the Commonwealth. This due to the influx of Australian officers viz Captain Boulton and Captain Braithwaite, plus the return of the other Colonial—Captain Ewart. " T o be sure" (sorry thur) the " swagman " and "billy" were duly tied down and camouflaged before departing on Exercise Autumn Sales. Restructuring is something which has even hit the stores, as experiments in the new binning have been undertaken. The problems encountered by Staff Hulse and his merry men have been duly sorted, although in the absence of familiarity of the new terminology it was not surprising to hear such phrases as "Tie the didgeridoo to the kangeroo—Blue" or "Whack the coco-koala bottle in the skippy pouch." In the meantime, however, the rest of us have been under- going the hardy perennials such as BE tests and range classi- fications. Amidst all the turmoil (controlled naturally) it was sheer coincidence that the wives club received a lecture given by Captain Hill SIB, on the misuse of drugs!! However, they made up for it by having " The Royal Family" film at their next meeting. We say farewell to Captain and Mrs Pash, Staff Sergeant and Mrs Richardson, Privates Craven and Stevens to civilian life, and welcome to Staff Sergeant and Mrs Ahern. Congratulations are extended to Privates Brooks and Cheg- widden on their recent marriages and we wish them well for the future. It must be added, despite all the comings and goings and the Commonwealth rumours, the OC, with thanks to Gilbert, did ' In spite of all temptations to belong to other nations remained an Englishman.* FRESH from our recent magical mystery tour of BAOR, under the guise of Exer- cise Autumn Sales, plans are afoot to make the CP even more plush. Lance Corporal Ian Grimes has drawn up the plans for a collapsible information desk STORES SECTION 1 FIELD WORKSHOP --— based on suggestions from Major Roger j ^g~^ WORK hard, play hard is always a sound policy. Exercises raSgj'Tj-ijgpgg? Forrest as prompted by CRAOC, Lieu- Hot Shot our Unit FTX and Exercise Quick Trek, 7 Brigade *& -Vfflv^- w tenant Colonel Owen. Wait until EME physical training exercise, saw us work hard. Whilst Exercise see this! Lost Weekend, our adventure training exercise, so appropriately 'Prompted* reminds me of the thespian air that prevails named, saw us play hard. Our camp was based on the banks as SQMS Del Henty knocks the theatre club into shape for the forthcoming panto. Corporal Clive Craister has got into 226 the act as barman (for real) and Major David Avery is keeping the accounts in line. I'm still awaiting my call from the wings Whittington?). but I think they have seven dwarfs already. (Dwarfs in Dick |
| Book number | R0246 |