On the early RAF Stanley dets, tin hats were issue in theatre to avoid burning fuel carrying them to and fro. Good thinking from the loggies (can't believe I actually wrote that!). Gozome time, pitch up at stores to hand in tin hat and other bits of locally issued kit. Trouble was, we only had one tin hat between the two of us, my nav having carefully lost his. Solution: I handed my kit in first, starting with the tin hat, and while the SAC storeman was putting the rest of the stuff away, trusty nav removes my tin hat from the shelf and hands it straight back to him. One hat, two signatures, good to go.
They got their own back on me many years later when I was de-kitting at Northolt. About 5 seconds after I had handed Storeman 1 my aircrew watch as one of the last actions, Storeman 2 arrives from the office area an announced they had lost my clothing card!
Storeman 1 sighs, and points out that I could have kept the watch as the rest of the kit would all be scrapped, but now they would have to record it. (Smiling) "Sorry, sir, nothing we can do about it now." "Really?" "No." He wasn't quite so amused when I insisted on having a receipt for it, nor when Storeman 2 pointed out that he would now have to get his own watch...
