Hello, Newbie reporting to Guard Room !

Hello there, I just found the link to this site, from the RAOConline site, so called by and decided to stay.

Thought it only polite to say that I shall lurk around with a mill board for a while make a few notes, and maybe throw in the odd comment now and then.

My time in Germany (BAOR) first time around was badged AAC, at Wildenrath and then Herford.

Second time around, was badged RAOC, at Paderborn, Obernkirchen and Muenster.

Also did a couple of exercises in my youth as RASC / RCT and later as RLC TA, at Bracht and Moenchen-Gladbach.

Welcome Niner Zulu to a great site and a interesting group of guys .. looking forward to your input .. no rush, take your time ..

Ciphers (Len)

Len,

Many thanks for the welcome

John

Hi John, I'm here as well.

Hi Jim - good to find company

I'm here too,there's more RAOC here than you can shake a stick at.

Hi Nobby,

Oh dear I'd better go and hide before I bump into someone who knows me

That's a bit strange, Niner Zulu. You've set me to thinking now, because I also served at Obernkirchen, but I never saw any RAOC wallahs there.

MsG

Hi Bugsy !

You will have been 29 then ?

You guys moved out of Obi, and it was empty for a while and then when the re-org Combat Supplies was undertaken, 49 Coy RAOC moved in.

We moved in late 77 - early 78, which is when I went there, I left for Muenster in Jan 81, and the unit stayed on for about another 3 years or so, the camp was finally closed and it is now a residential estate.

I have posted a few details under the Obernkirchen link on this site.

John

Cheers Niner Zulu. I thought I was losin' me marbles there, for a while, mucker.

Aye, I was in 29 when they were there, although I don't know where they went after that.

You saying it's now a residential estate, I wonder if they kept the old Nissen hut on the top car park.

MsG

The old Nissan hut was still there when we were and it was used by the Petroleum guys for storage of the equipment.

The whole of the top end of the camp was taken up by the Petroleum Pln, the next building down was the cookhouse / canteen, which was linked to the Sergeants Mess (accn was across the road in the low building).
Back across the road was a wood building (probably same era as the Nissan), it was quite large and was the Office etc for the Ammunition Pln, who all worked out at the Outstations (Forward Storage Sites).
Next building down the hill was the OR Accn.
Next down was the HQ Building and next CQMS.
Last was the "Schloss" which was the JRC (NAAFI refused to take it over so we ran it ourselves), behind that in the Sheds was my kingdom, the MT.

Most of the guys who served there during the RAOC era, are still in contact with each other and hold mini - reunions, a number married German girls and still live out there.

I got involved with a number of local German clubs etc and still receive Christmas cards from some.

They were good times !

It seems strange that the Nissan hut wasn't demolished a long time ago, but, then again, it was a very solid structure.

The “wooden building” you refer to, mucker, was built around 1970, and long after the Nissen hut. I was there when they built it.

If memory serves, as you entered the building, you had two offices on the left, two on the right and two facing you. These were, in order from left to right in the days when 29 Fd Amb was there: the orderly room, the pay office, the COs office, the Adj’s office, the Chief Clerk's office and the RSMs office. Aah, the memories.

I can only remember all this because it was me who wired up all the inter-office intercoms they insisted upon in those days. You can't imagine the buckets I sweated creeping around in that very low loft laying wires and connecting them all up to a central board.

At the same time, I also rigged up a further connection to the singlies' block across the way that led through the eaves, so that I, or anybody else for that matter, could listen to what they all had to say to each other. Very interesting stuff sometimes. I often wonder why nobody ever asked why there was a supported cable running from the new admin block (as it was known then) to the singlies' block, but in those days there wasn't such a paranoid attitude to life in general. Happy times indeed!

MsG

Wow! The wooden building built 1970, it was still in one piece when we took it over in 1978, and laid out as you describe, but very sad looking, but it did last until we left and the Germans demolished it after that.

To your credit the intercom still worked when we were there and it was me who had to go out and locally purchase and fit the terminals, because they worked, I didn't have to trace any of the wiring, I did notice the cable to the OR accn, but didn't trace that to see where it ended. Perhaps I should have done, but the building was nothing to do with me, and no one else was interested.

Our HQ was in the low brick building the other side of the OR Accn to the Wood Building. It was quite "plush" compared with the rest of the buildings, the OC's office was on the end by the road, and his window faced the accn, so he was subjected to a number of "accidental moonings", especially when he had visiting dignitories !

One OC who I particularly disliked, had his office raided one weekend, the carpet pulled up, and "stink bombs" indiscriminantly scattered, the carpet relaid, and everything left as it was. For months after, he kept standing on them and setting them off, but never figured out where the smell came from ! I wouldn't like to say who did it !