As a S.N.C.O. I had a card to collect various departments signatures
so I passed it around during morning coffee break. It was all signed up by
11:00 and I was civilian by lunchtime. Clothing? Mostly in the bin
behind the mess. I left six weeks early and joined the ACP course at
Oxford ATS on the following Monday.

5aday, one of our copilots was posted with immediate effect (nothing bad - I think a CFS slot came up) and he was off. There was no question of clearing. Much fuss and bluster from the jobs lots.

We attached a photo to his clearly card "If you don't recognise this man, sign the card,". Job done .

When it came my turn to be promoted to civilian, the final step in the process was to attend at Gen Office with the dance card all filled in, and sign the OSA and then go. I had been on the strength of four different stations in the last six months, so I was confident that nobody knew where I was, never mind what kit I had.

So I turn up with my partly falsified blue card full of signatures, some of my kit dispersed among the troops, some at home, and some in the car outside.

The young Cpl in charge, picks up two copies of the OSA declaration form. He hands one to me, and said, "sign here please" as he signed, and stamped as witnessed, the other one.

I signed one and gave it to him and he hands me the other saying, "sign that one now" as someone else spoke to him, so he turned away. I put the unsigned one in my folder with the rest of the stuff I had collected and walked out the door, a free man.

I still have that form which I have not signed, but it is countersigned and stamped to say that I have.

Lots, the Squadron inventory holders were told to list what was lost and a lot of stuff lost beforehand and afterwards was added, it was such a rush job no one knew exactly what was on board, Odious was a hectic place, Chinooks were being modded, Puma was going, so company producing bags for them employed, then that cancelled and Wessex going as commonality with RN, then cancelled, helicopters swopping over to cover the NI detachments and then being cancelled, and then when the Conveyor went new Chinooks were having to be robbed to generate spares as a lot were now at the bottom of the Atlantic, even a Harrier turfing up to trial and see if a Chinook could be used as a glorified APU. They even lost ( as it was a civi ship ) all the cheques the guys had spent in the bar.

None of it matters. The system is too big to find out if all the stuff has been returned and forms filled in correctly.

I do not particularly care what you think SD, but I was there at Odiham on Chinooks mate, having come off Wessex and Puma, a lot of my mates, work colleagues and close friends were on the Conveyor...... But Hey Ho believe me of not.



..

A friend records in his autobiography, that I helped him resolve some deficiencies in his kit after an aircraft incident in some distant and inaccessible part of the Commonwealth.

As I was the supply officer at his unit, his claim that I helped him is a foul slur on my good name and reputation. I'm sure my exact words were: "Get your ass back up the jungle and don't darken my door again until you've found it all".

(I do have a professional modus to protect)!!!!!

Old Duffer

Conveyor
 

I was told, OK hearsay, that the Vulcan that crashed in Anglesey had a two-door cabinet with a load of docs on board. That was 20 years prior.

I think other aircraft that crashed also had all their kit, like engine blanks and wheel spats on on-board, so Atlantic Conveyor was not the exception.
​​​​

Atlantic Gonveyer
 

I was on Ascension a couple of days after the Atlantic Conveyer was sunk. I was talking to the Fg Off Supplier when we were joined by CAS. There was a continuous train of RN Helicopters loading and unloading the ships. The CAS asked the Supplier if there were any problems ,to be told that the Supplier was worried about accounting for the kit arriving and departing as there was no way of recording what went where. The CAS replied " Do not worry. We will work out what left UK, what gets back and everything else was on the Atlantic Conveyer."

I first heard of this practice in the early 60s when an RN helicopter Planeguard had to ditch from the hover after an engine failure. After all the lost tools, mess kits etc had been added it was found to be a couple of tons above MTOW!!

And then of course there was the "unfortunate" fire at the Army depot at Kineton, which cleared a lot of accounting problems!! https://www.pprune.org/images/infopop/icons/icon7.gif

Well possibly the two fires at Donington supply depot, the supply squadron at Lossiemouth, an RMAF Caribou in the Sabah rain forest and, I expect, many more!

O-D

All went well on my departure from Wittering everything signed and accounted for including my PE kit. I must have been the only person who ever returned a a complete set. That was until I attempted to handed back the 1 (F) squadron transit spares inventory of which I was the holder. I was short of 11 wing tanks ! To this day i cannot fathom why it was an odd number or that stores even believed I had them stashed away somewhere for sale at a later date.

On missing stores, I recall signing the arming log, 2986 or something close, pocketing a load arming pins, and returning with empty bomb racks. As far as I know we never reconciled what was loaded with where it ended up. Certainly if someone pitched up with the bomb serial number and a bill for a new greenhouse it could be checked back.

And the pins? Great for all the strong split rings.
,

Being in Germany when my PVR date came through, nothing simple like clearing from Bruggen ( and the RAF ) was allowed thus my one, and only, visit to Innsworth was duly decreed.

The stores bit was "interesting " in that it became evident from the immaculately attired career jobsworth she disapproved of my decision to leave and thus was determined to extract money from me. The first problem was a greatcoat, or rather the absence of one. I explained it had long been disposed of at Valley, true, but sadly failed to add the disposal was via Bangor Uni when such items were "must have " fashion accessories for any self respecting student. We moved on to the legendary "deep sea box" made of wood many will recall. Again, I was ahead of my time with re cycling because the gliding club had been the beneficiary of this item ( the second tour version was cardboard and fitted nicely into a skip )

Undeterred, she asked for the towels.....success ! the first "kerching ! " on the bill....likewise with the PT kit, long since used for rags, and not having the allocated number of shirts...as " we don't want you masquerading as a serviceman when you leave ! "....immortal words really as I pointed out I had been doing so for a number of years anyway, and having wasted 18months of my life waiting to leave ( this was late 70's early 80's ) strangely I was in no great rush to impersonate anybody in uniform. The total was about £ 7 or £8 quid.

Then came the paperwork.....and proof of life after death. Enter a room with one poor SAC clerk, I did feel sorry for the guy, seriously, surrounded by about 6 or 7 W.O..s ( see life after death because they must have been resurrected every morning ) one of whom made the enticing offer to stay in.....alas, my response was not quite to his satisfaction and I was reminded of my status ...until I pointed out the SAC had my 1250 and had signed for it thus one was now a Mr.

My major interest was scanning the chinagraph scrawls on a board giving dates for those I had just left as these only appeared a matter of weeks before you departed....apparently there were some very confused and upset admin people at Bruggen when my mates broke the news to them "somewhat prematurely ".

No. I had been frogmarched up to Kai Tak for a detachment with 28 Sqn.. :{:{:ok::ok::ok:

MPN11

I have one mug spare, no i did not nick yours. I was clearing out my attic last night in preparation for our last ever house move and i found my old one. I have no idea why i keep such Cra9

Some items have a magnetic attraction to their owner, or at least he/she who was originally issued with the item!

I keep telling myself to have a major purge, but what can one do with Greatcoats, No1 and No5 ... of both genders, as she has a magnetic field of her own!!