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RAOC Gazette - page 89

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Corps RAOC
Material type Journals
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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1980
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Colour Yes
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Early date 1980
Late date 1980
Transcription §
Centre, at Frimlcy, Surrey. The ACF however needs one
thousand five hundred more officers and adult instructors, male
and female, and a major aim of the film is to attract suitable
people.
The ACF traces its tradition back to the 1860s when the
first impromptu cadet companies were formed by young people,
emulating their fathers at a time of threatened French invasion.
The modern ACF however is continually evolving; and the most
recent innovation last autumn was the concept of mixed boy and
girl detachments at Units in schools.
Produced for the MOD by the Central Office of Informa-
tion, the film is available from the Central Film Library, Brom-
yard Avenue, Acton, London W3 7JB.
fox tfje
FLOATING
ASSETS
OUR photograph is of a Belize Ammunition Compound at
Ladyville near Airport Camp Belize City, which was recently
flooded to a depth of four and a half feet following severe rain
storms when the nearby Belize River burst its banks.
Surprisingly very little ammunition was damaged thanks to
the prompt actions of W02 Lewis, Sergeant Gough and Corporal
Purkins who make up the Belize RAOC Ammunition Section.
CENTURIAN
CENTREPIECE
SOME years ago, the Graven Hill Sergeants Mess at Bicester
established a silver fund and, once this was strong enough, a
committee to purchase a centrepiece was established, comprising:
W02 Jack Strachan of DSCS, Staff Sergeant Fred Downie
RPC and Sergeant Skid Rowe RAPC.
They contacted John Willmin, a Buckinghamshire crafts-
man and Fellow of the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths.
He, with the assistance of local historians and the ever-helpful
Bodleian Library at Oxford, established that the 2nd Augustan
Legion served in the Bicester area prior to their posting to
Germany. (A whimsical link with today). Some armour of the
2nd Augustan Legion was found at Oberaden, in Germany, and
it is in that image that Mr Willmin crafted his piece.
Ammunition storage problems in Belize.
N E W BOOST FOR THE
A R M Y CADET FORCE
A MAJOR new initiative to promote the Army Cadet Force,
and to attract more adult leaders, has been launched by the
Ministry of Defence. The drive centres around a specially com-
missioned film, titled 'Army Cadet.' The film was introduced
recently at a preview by General Sir Robert Ford, the Ad-
jutant General.
Mr Barney Heyhoe, MP, Under Secretary of State for
Defence for the Army headed a guest list of over one hundred
and fifty distinguished industrialists, businessmen, church leaders
and other public figures. Representatives of the Army and
Army Cadets included Major General John Foster, Director of
Territorial Army and Army Cadets, Major General The Earl
Cathcart, and General Sir Antony Read, respectively the
President and the Chairman of the Army Cadet Force
Association.
The film, which lasts twenty five minutes, features the
range of cadet activities against a background of interview with
ACF Officers and adult instructors, and will be available for
free circulation. The ACF is an entirely voluntary organisa-
tion, sponsored by the Army, and run by people from all walks
of civilian life.
Its aim is to develop among its members ' the qualities of
good citizenship and the spirit of service to Queen and Country.'
It achieves this by providing adventurous training, and stimulating
an interest in the Army, its skills and role in national life.
There are currently forty four thousand cadets, aged between
thirteen and eighteen, spread among one thousand six hundred
detachments in sixty nine counties. They are led by some eight
thousand adults, who receive instruction at the Cadet Training
A link with the past
This was then made personal to the Mess by the enamelling
of the shield to reflect the Bicester Garrison Crest in royal blue
and gold, over that of the Graven Hill Sergeants Mess, in scarlet
and silver.
This interesting and dramatic example of the silversmith's
art is further enhanced by being set on to a plinth of local,
Cotswold stone.
THE CASE OF THE EXPLOSIVE
BRIEF
THIS is a true story only the names have been changed.
For Mr F. O. Alpha the day started much in the same as
any other day in Ulster; he put on his raincoat thinking to
himself " it's only rained once in this month from the first to
the fifteenth."
He picked up his briefcase, kissed the cat,
pulled the door to and went off on his business of inspecting
Units, in fact he had a very successful morning, so successful
that he returned to the office after lunch.
For Mr Bravo the morning had been the usual push all the
files out of the In tray into the Pending tray and back again,
a few telephone calls, and the odd cup of NATO coffee, then
— 302 —
Book number R0403a