RAOC Gazette - page 109
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1983 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1983 |
| Late date | 1983 |
| Transcription |
A LETTER FROM: NEW ZEALAND IT was with many regrets thai we boarded the Jumbo Jet for New York but time and life, marches on. We landed in New York on 9th of September 1 ( J82. I had previously shipped a VW camping van lo Wilmington Delaware and we picked that up a few days later. We also bought a POP UP tent trailer proposing a three and a half month trip across America, departing from Los Angeles on 21st December for Auckland, Christmas and a new life as an immigrant family in New Zealand. The drive across America was truly incredible. The people were all very kind and helpful. They 'just loved the British' and ' Gee didn't you all do well standing up for what's right in the Falklands.' There is a system of State and National Parks, anything of interest, be it a place of scenic beauty, or historic importance, is bought by either the State or Nation and kept immaculate with Park wardens, Information Centres, five dollars a night camp sites ' with hook ups,' trails and guides. After New York, Washington and Baltimore we had seen enough of big cities and avoided them where possible spending most nights in a State or National Park. After driving down the Blue Ridge Mountains and a stop with friends in Charlottsville we veered out to the coast through Savannah and Jacksonville heading for Orlando and Disney World, EPCOT, Cape Kennedy and the Florida Keys. The Everglades were impossible due to the mosquitoes and No See Urns, a small biting insect that (lies straight through mosquito nets. The North Gulf Coast was idyllic though and we rested on an island there for a week or so to recover from the sight seeing necessities of Florida. Next came New Orleans, one of the few interesting cities, and Houston crisscrossed with ten lane highways. It took three days to drive across Texas, the Guadalupe Mountains remaining in view for most of that time. We climbed the highest peak five thousand feet up and down, eighteen miles a day, quite a feat for Katrin seven and Alex eight but they loved the view and Max ten enjoyed reading the comments in the Register in an old Am- munition Box at the top. Carlsbad Caverns a three hours walk around limestone caves three miles underground, the Hoover Dam a half hours walk round one mile of underground caverns, the meteor crater one hour's walk around the three mile rim of a large hole in the ground and the Grand Canyon. We really felt that we had arrived as we stood on the rim looking down a mile to the Colorado River and seven miles across to the north rim. We walked down to the bottom and stayed the night in a bunk house. Up at 0530 the next morning for breakfast and the long trek back. It was warm in the canyon but really quite cold on the rim. Las Vegas was next where we met up with Tina's sister Brigitta who was to spend the next three weeks with us. After losing some of my pension at the crap table we drove on to Brice canyon described by Ebenezer Brice in 1830 as a "Hell of a place to lose a cow " and Zion canyon where the sun roof in the van was the only way to see the view. A week spent in Death Valley was a welcome change and a rest, and from there we pushed on to Los Angeles and Sea World, where they paint the grass green and manufacture snow for Christmas. Max, Alex and Katrin took their Aunt to Disney Land and we all visited Universal Studios. The family dwarfed by nature. We then took some time to sort ourselves out, put the van on the ship for New Zealand and tried without success to sell the POP UP. The flight to New Zealand went slowly for due to the Inter- national Date Line we missed the 21st of December altogether, arriving on 22nd to a fantastic welcome by Libby and Boyd Squires. (Major ex-RAOC now RNZAOC.) We moved down to Wellington on the Silver Fern, a twelve hour twice daily rail connection between Auckland and Welling- ton. We were met by Eion Thomson, RNZAOC who spent two years exchange in Kineton. The New Zealand Ordnance Corps comprises forty six Officers including myself, and approximately four hundred soldiers. That's one twenty seventh or 3.6% of the Officer complement of the RAOC. However, all the trades are still manned from AT to Tailor, Pet Op to Butcher. There is a Supply Depot of eighty strong military complement and one hundred civilians which procures and holds a three months stock of everything except Ammunition for the army. With a current hit rate of eighty six per cent it's quite an efficient unit. Issues are made to Stores Sections with the Workshops and Supply Companies, similar to Ord Companies but the main element is static, one third goes out in the field called an Ord- nance Field Park. There is a Combat Supplies Platoon, an Ammunition Platoon and a Stores Platoon. The Ammunition Platoon is rarely deployed and the Stores Platoon is a static element. I have been posted to 1 Base Supply Battalion, the NZ equivalent of all the UK Depots and Dulmen and Viersen in BAOR all squeezed into twenty six storage buildings and forty acres of land commanded by a Lieutenant Colonel. The DOS is also a Lieutenant Colonel. Currently there is one Colonel and a Lieutenant Colonel in Defence Headquarters and that's — 90 — |
| Book number | R0406 |