RAOC Gazette - page 138
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 |
6 Ordnance Battalion HEADQUARTERS COMPANY A relatively quiet month which has made a nice change to the usually busy pace of life at Battalion Headquarters. Sad farewells were said over a curry lunch to WOl (Cdr) Mottram and WOl (SSM) Mudway our two AOWO's who are leaving both the Battalion and the Army. WOl (Cdr) Mottram started Army life in what was 6 Ordnance Battalion, Chilwell, so it was fitting he should leave the Army from the new 6 Ord- nance Battalion. We also say farewell to Lance Corporal Harper who leaves for civvy street, we all wish him luck. New arrivals to the Battalion are the new Chief Clerk, Staff Sergeant J. N. A. Higgs who takes over from Staff Sergeant Eddie Edmondson who is off to Osnabruck. Congratulations are in order for Corporal Nicholson who joins the Corps from the Queens Regiment, and Sergeant Dawson on his GOCs Commendation. 62 ORDNANCE COMPANY THIS month is the season for courses and adventure training. and more detachments to the South Atlantic, and more young soldiers joining the Company. Welcome to Privates Crook and Massingham from the Depot, W02 Wadley from 64 Ordnance Company who took over from newly promoted WOl Fyzool who has become an AOWO at Headquarters 6 Ordnance Battalion. Hospitals have become popular beginning with Private Morgan's knee, then WOl Braithwaite's sojourn, then Private Sagar's cartilage being removed. Lance Corporals Davis and Ogden have recently been promoted, and the former is now detached to the Medical Centre, the latter went on a caving course under the Harz followed by the Challenge pursuits over the Harz with some twenty other Company members under Captain Haslam and CSM Tones. Captain Pepperell has gone one better—on a gliding course. Staff Sergeant Roberts has returned from a six months tour in the Falklands, and Private Camilleri has already gone. Lance Corporal Conway's return is imminent. A party went to Hengelo for a soccer tournament, and others for an education tour of Amsterdam. Lance Corporal Pollock was mugged there! A group with Second Lieutenant Snaith and Sergeant Simpson marched in a thirty kilometre event near Koln. The annual event of three man teams navigating in the Harz Mountains in the forest marathon, took place when forty three teams began day one, a sixty five kilometre toil, climb- ing nearly five thousand feet, regrettably the first of five check points was misplaced so the day was declared void! Day two was individual with each teams runners times being added for a result. Only twenty six teams went forward for day two, forty three kilometres run with five thousand feet climb of five check points. At the end of the day 62 Ordnance Company came fourth, eighty seven seconds behind 7 RHA 'A' in the aggregate time of fourteen hours seventeen minutes. 7 RHA ' B ' won with 94 Loc Regiment second. Individually, out of sixty four individuals who completed day two, Major Brightman was tenth, W02 Tones (who had an injury) came twenty fourth, and Private Paton fifty eighth. The swimmers, Corporal Hart, Privates Nicholson and Williams came third in the Divisional Championships, but the Sappers were too good. 63 ORDNANCE COMPANY AFTER numerous attempts at tapping the literary talents of our Storage Section, Lance Corporal Leddy has come up with some notes on Exercise Rollerball which included a families visit to the Company at the Exercise location. For Exercise Rollerball, half of the Company went into the field while the other half stayed in Redcar Barracks to carry on with the good work for which 63 are renowned. For this Exercise there was about six days of rain posted in to keep the troops happy (and very wet) while they performed their various tasks as soldiers/vehicle specialists in the field. Apart from vehicles being bogged down (by RCT of course) and soldiers taking part in the Company diving championships, which were held by the way, in the various trenches dotted around the location, everyone managed to keep smiling. During a break in the exercise the unit was visited by the wives and children, to see for themselves what their men got up to in the field. After a short tour of the various functions within the location, there followed a demonstration by CSM Finch and his merry band of Commandos on the dangers of blank rounds and pyrotechnics or as one child put it (hey look mum, he's got some big bangers) referring to the thundcrflashes of course. After the demonstration there followed a high speed section attack in a CVRT driven by Corporal Bell. The attack was carried out by Lance Corporal Mclntyre (REME) and Privates Smith. Alexander, Craftsman ET Evans and two other Crafts- men who were attached to the unit for the period of the Exercise. Finally the day came to an end with a birthday presentation to Captain Wood; a birthday cake as a small token of appreciation from the unit. Captain Wood can now be seen limping round the unit after being attacked by thirty or so children who showed great delight in giving him the bumps. Rumour has it. he is really older, but he didn't let on for fear of more aggro from the children. Our photograph shows the children surrounding our cook and the cake before they began to devour it. A piece of cake. On our sports scene, we had the Battalion Athletics Cham- pionships. Unfortunately the exercise did not permit time for training. However, there were some star performers in the Company, notably, Lance Corporal Footitt, Privates Davies and Smith (824). Undoubtedly we had the talent and with training the whole team could have been devastating. Finally to end we welcome back from the Falklands Private Hatton and say farewell to Staff Sergeant Higgs and his family who have moved up to Headquarters 6 Ordnance Battalion. 64 ORDNANCE COMPANY THE undoubted highlight of this past month has been the official re-opening of our unit club, The Rochdale Room, by our CO Lieutenant Colonel Hudson. In its former location, the club was closed as a result of a fire inspection and, as you can imagine, this led to a frantic search for new premises. These were found in the dining room of our canteen and within a very short space of time, an empty room was transformed into a very cosy lounge-type bar. This transformation was due to a lot of hard work in their spare time by everyone within the Company, but especially by one of our local employees Herr Eddy Peicyywek. The soldier lurking in the background of our photograph is Corporal Gilbert, keeping a concerned eye on his bar stock! Now that the fine weather is with us, on weekends and holidays, the goldfish and hybrid carp in the Company static water tank have been taking a battering from the young sons of Major Stone, W02 Cummings and Sergeant Bolton, complete with fishing rods. We also heard from the members of the unit currently in those lands where the fishing is good but the weather not so fine. The news from Lance Corporal Jenkins and Privates Hoare and Williams is that the RAOC Bakery (Falkland Islands) is running smoothly under their guidance and that conditions, generally, are excellent apart from the roads, footpaths, equip- ment, weather and the cryptic ' Naval Bombardment' (I thought we were all on the same side!). To Lance Corporal Forrest in Belize—put pen to paper: ' M o t h e r ' would like to hear from you Finally this month, the good news and the bad news. The good news is, congratulations to W02 Wadley and Corporal Baker in their promotion to those ranks, and the bad news is — 115 — |
| Book number | R0406 |