The Head Dragon (DWRAF) on leaving work one night signed off her signals and went home.
At 01.00 an orderly officer on a station in the outer islands of Scotland was woken to go to the commcen to sign for a priority signal. He read (something like):
PRIORITY
FM: DWRAF
ABA/YAA 211800ZOCT1991
DWRAF has approved the following shades and brands of stockings and tights for wearing with WRAF uniform:
Boots: Autumn Shade
Pretty Polly: Dusk
etc. etc.
Not a happy bunny to have been woken up for this, he asked for a message pad and wrote:
IMMEDIATE
Personal For DWRAF
Your ABA/YAA 211800ZOCT1991 Acknowledged. Will comply.
And asked the operator to send it. He then went to bed.
After an uneventful night's orderly officer duty he was invited by a rather terse stn cdr to join him for an Axminster Shuffle (with hat) at 08:30.
On presenting himself, he was told not to do it again in no uncertain terms as the stn cdr did not appreciate fire from the Dragon at silly o'clock a.m.
Apparently, MOD rules had required that the signal be sent by messenger to DWAF's residence. When it arrived at about 02:30, she couldn't remember what her ABA/YAA211800Z... was all about so had got dressed and had driven in to MOD, arriving at @ 03:30.
She had then spent 2 hours searching her office for a signal which warranted such a high priority acknowledgement before finding the stocking signal at @ 05:45.
At this point the stn cdr could no longer keep a straight face, told the miscreant to take off his hat and have a seat, and asked his secretary to bring in tea and biccies for the pair of them.
The miscreant left the office with both him and the stn cdr in tears, laughing.