Originally Posted by
Tankertrashnav
I was giving an evening talk at St Mawgan a few years back and was getting signed in at the guardroom when a car pulled up and a sergeant got out and went across to where the ensign was about to be lowered at 1800. He stood to attention and saluted as it came down, then got back in his car and drove back out of the camp.
I queried all this with the officer who was signing me in, Apparently there were so few officers left at St Mawgan that SNCOs took their turn as "orderly officer". Also it's now a duty which can be carried out from home - no requirement to stay and sleep on camp any more.
Times change.
Times certainly do. When I was a Flt Off on OO over weekends; inspecting airmen' meals, checking armoury etc, I always envied the Flt Lt SDOs who sat about the mess in sports jackets, and seemed to have nothing to do. By the time I was a Flt Lt, the SDO had mysteriously moored into Duty Ops Officer or some such and Flt Its were OOs. Story of my life.