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RAOC Gazette - page 246

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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1983
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Early date 1983
Late date 1983
Transcription Lance Corporal McLuskie is returning to 31 Ordnance
Company about now where he has his wife and two daughters
waiting for him. He will probably still have to carry his pack
off the plane at Brize Norton!
CONGRATULATIONS
DSCS has sent in this picture of Mrs Jean Burnham, Head of
ADP Division, Directorate of Supply Computer Services, with
husband Dennis and son Bill outside Buckingham Palace after
receiving the OBE from Her Majesty The Queen.
Jean Burnham and her family are well known in Bicester
Garrison. She started as a CO in 1959. Posted to CICP as an
EO Programmer in 1967, she was promoted HEO in 1970,
SEO in 1975, and Principal in 1979. After this promotion,
she left Bicester to work in CM(ADP) in London, for two
years, where she was concerned with all civilian ADP post-
ings, before returning to Bicester and her current appoint-
ment in 1981.
Major John Ridding.
Depot and the OEOs. John has been ' head hunted' by his
former OIC 2 Sub-Depot, Lieutenant Colonel Ray Holland,
and is off to work for BLESMA.
To John and Dorothy go our best wishes for the future and
trust they will not forget all their friends in the Corps and
especially those at Donnington.
THE
Jean has a high reputation throughout the Garrison and
beyond for her skill at her job and her management style.
Many Senior Officers in the Corps can testify to her sense of
humour, as well as to the sound advice she has provided on
many matters. Her OBE follows a period of hectic activity
during which the Automatic Data Processing Installation in
Bicester more than doubled in size, and was then called on to
support Operation Corporate, using in some cases, systems
whose developments had been hastily accelerated to meet the
emergency. No-one who knows Jean will be in any doubt-
about how the Installation met the challenge.
Dennis Burnham is Chief Instructor in the MHE Section
of Technical Training Wing COD Bicester—he too, is well
known in Bicester especially in golf, cricket and fishing circles.
Son Bill now works in London as a lecturer in computer science
but often worked in the Depot as a casual labourer in his
school holidays and university vacations, making a family
' hat-trick ' for the Garrison. The Corps as a whole share her
family's pride in Jean's award.
RETIREMENT OF
( O E O ) J. M . R I D D I N G ,
IN
CYPRUS
FRESH from their successes in the Rhine Army Championships
the RAOC Free Fall team travelled to Cyprus to compete in the
Cyprus Combined Services Parachute Championships held at
King's Field, Dhekelia.
The team chosen to take part in both four man Relative work
and Team accuracy were Captain Gary Hawthorne, Sergeant
Rob Ames (REME attached), Corporal Ziv Ziverts and Lance
Corporal Sean Hutchinson. Needless to say the weather is
ideal for the sport in that part of the world, although the wind
has a habit of blowing in opposite directions at different heights
creating havoc for a ' hard core' accuracy jumper who is aim-
ing for a five centimetre disc in the middle of a twenty five metre
circle!
The competition proper started with two rounds of Relative
Work and a round of accuracy and it soon became apparent
that out of the eight teams competing, including one team from
the Sultanate of Oman, the main contenders would be the Royal
Engineers UK/BAOR, the Cannonballs and the Royal Green
Jackets.
Six relative jumps and five accuracy jumps constituted the
competition. Dawn on the final day brought a fairly high wind and
Mrs Jean Burnham and family on that special day.
MAJOR
CANNONBALLS
MBE
MAJOR JOHN RIDDING, ' J R ' to all at COD Donnington,
retires this month after thirty seven years service. He joined the
Corps as a boy soldier in October 1946, rising through the
ranks to Warrant Officer Class I (Conductor) before com-
missioning in May 1968. His commissioned service has taken
him through SSC, SRC and Regular OEO with tours in Singa-
pore, BAOR, Berlin and UK. He was awarded the MBE for
the tremendous work he did at Donnington during Op
Corporate. His last few weeks at Donnington consisted largely
of farewell lunches and dinners from the Officers Mess, 2 Sub-

The four man sequential team in good spirits before emplaning.
203
Book number R0406