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RAOC Gazette - page 90

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Corps RAOC
Material type Journals
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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1981
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Early date 1981
Late date 1981
Transcription f -ling Pistol Competition and WOl Hubbard won the novices
V ^hv sailing race in the local regatta. The Depot herd of
.." .Is'(grass cutters) have been 'thinned out 1 and the chickens
Ire all broody. Corporal Caldwell reports the birth of Mark
Jonathan to his wife Diane. The Depot won the ' Brains of
Akrotiri ' and now represent RAOC versus REME (no contest?).
Our families were entertained to an open day in the Depot
^'hen they cast a perhaps somewhat jaundiced eye over our
activities. (The goats in their pen and mosquito eating fish in the
static water tanks were the main attractions). We finished with
a barbecue lunch with husbands explaining to wives, " there is
more than that to it, dear. 1
X \OC AKROTIR1.
Since our last entry, the appointment of
• Ticer commanding has been handed over from Major Forrest
to Major Skinner. The former and his family should now
be settled in UK. whilst Major Skinner is busily getting to know
his new staff. Many desks in the unit have suddenly sprouted
nametags to assist him.
NESAM is the annual shooting competition here in Cyprus.
Considering that the competition included many teams/individuals
from infantry units, the RAOC team achieved some fine results.
Overall we were ninth of twenty seven teams and. within that,
we were the third non-infantry team. The team members were
Captain Brown, Sergeants Neal (Team Captain), Lynch and Hoit,
Corporals Allen, Bolton, Stott (Top Shot within the team) and
Thomson.
Several members of the unit took part in the Military Ski-
ing Courses which were held on Mount Troodos earlier this year.
(Yes, we do get snow in Cyprus). Sergeant Lynch was one of
the students and did extremely well. He was one of only four
to achieve Silver Awards on his course, Corporal Neath, on the
other hand, went there purely for the enjoyment and returned
labelled " course comedian '* by his instructor,
We entered a team of four in the Christodoulas March
v.-hich is an eight mile walk in aid of the Cyprus Anti-Cancer
Society, They were Captain Brown, Staff Sergeant Dickie,
Sergeant Gordon and Lance Corporal (now Corporal) Stott,
Due to their efforts and very generous sponsorship within the
unit, over £150 was raised for the charity. Will Sergeant Gordon
now give up smoking?
We entered two vehicles in Exercise Trackmaster, an
arduous rally-type exercise held annually. Corporals Allen
and Stott were first in the questions on the Highway Code and
achieved third place in the individual entry for Army Land
Forces Cyprus but could have done better had they not stopped
•o assist another team and gat their vehicle bogged down in the
Process. Sergeant Lynch and Lance Corporal Kennion achieved
seventh place individual entry in the same class. A good result
for our first entry in the exercise.
The Brains of Akrotiri is an annual knockout, general
knowledge quiz held, in the first instance, between teams from
different departments within the unit. In the first match this
year, the Headquarters/Inventory Control team were beaten by
the Vehicle Depot team. On the same evening, Ammo Depot
took on and beat the Stores Depot team. As can be seen from
;he photograph, RAOC Ladies used several ploys to try to dis-
tract Ammo Depot in the next round. Although statistically (?)
;he ladies lost to Ammo Depot, we feel they were actually beaten
by two of the ' specialist' rounds ; one was ( football ' and another
* World War IL' The winner of the final was Ammo Depot who
defeated Vehicle Depot and now wait to see which branch of
48 Command Workshop REME they challenge for the trophy—
a report on that one in our next notes.
On the sports scene, the Army Logistics soccer team had
a very unlucky season. The team, which has fielded eight
RAOC soldiers during the season, were runners up to 34 Squadron
RAF Regiment in the Horsley Cup. They were also runners up
'0 34 Squadron in the Akratiri Minor Units League, missing out
tiy only one point. Throughout the entrie season (twenty two
games) the Logistics team lost only five points. The RAOC
players still here are W02 Graves, Sergeants Docherty and Dowse
and Corporals Douglas (Ammo Depot) Lewis, Peterson and Stott,
Better luck next year' Army Logistics teams are made up
from the five Army units in Akrotiri. In the logistics sports
team, two RAOC members -Captain McCartney and Staff
Sergeant Dickies-assisted in taking revenge on 34 Squadron and
winning the station sports day. This is a considerable success
since 34 Squadron have won for the last four years. Well
done!
Finally, we come to the arrivals, departures and congratula-
tory spot and say welcome to Major Skinner and Sergeant
Gemmell and their families. We say farewell to Major Forrest
and Sergeant Markley with their families and wish them well in
the future. We also say farewell and congratulations to Lance,
Photo W02 Whelan.
The RAOC ladies team in the Brains of Akrotiri competition: left
to right: Mrs B. W h e l a n , Mrs J. Graves* Mrs I. Revill, Mrs
B. Carlyle.
Corporal Hart who leaves us for Headquarters RAOC Episkopi
on his promotion to that rank.
Congratulations to Corporal and Mrs Hughes an the birth
of their son and to W02 Lewis, Staff Sergeant Copland and
Sergeant Neal for their provisional selection for substantive
promotion. To finish, congratulations to Corporal Stott on his
promotion to that rank.
British Forces Hong Kong
• H H M M H
CRIES of glee, congratulation and com-
^ H H K 9 H B B |
miseration echoed round the corridors of
H n ^ m
power as the latest promotion board results
were ma
^Hps^^^Hfl
d e known.
Gourmet restaurants
H w f l l
have been contacted and tables booked for
|:
>&**
celebration dinners for the happy and 'feasts
:
e
" %
of the passover * for the not so happy. Being
one of the latter, my disappointment was
alleviated somewhat when I was given the attached cartoon. It
is included with this months notes in the hope that it may cheer
up people in the same boat as I.
" Cheer up! You may be at the bottom of the ladder at work, but
here you're second in command!"
Of the fifteen RAOC members of the Hong Kong Tigers
Rugby Football Club, four were lucky (or sufficiently skilled)
and were included in a tour of Korea, The four, WOl Frank
Book number R0250