Ops-Normal.org

Whilst I was on AFTS, I recall when the Staish at Valley got the boot. OC Ops went round and gave a short briefing for each Squadron.
"The Station Commander is no longer the Station Commander. I am the acting Station Commander. If you need to know why, you have already been told. Carry on."
I was quite impressed with him for doing that. He'd done an Italian Starfighter exchange tour, after which nothing can faze you, I guess.
Rumours ranged from personal financial skullduggery to knocking off the Padre's wife, with the weight of opinion tending towards the latter.

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote: ↑

Mon May 20, 2019 6:37 pm

Interesting. My own IOT flight commander (stacker) was later court marshaled and dismissed for shoplifting. Is this a stacker thing?

As for Tornado Sqn Cdrs having extra-marital affairs, I have on at least two occasions had to chat up the other one whilst my boss.... What's unusual is that that one got caught.

Obviously a supply officer mis-interpreting the term "stocktaking".

This Tornado boss was bubbled by a third party with whom he had (allegedly of course) also been "emotionally and intimately involved" until she found out about the other two women.

"Wives and sweethearts; may they never meet", the RN's Saturday Toast, to drag the thread back (screaming) to where it started.

4m, we had something similar, Fox may have been around when we lost pure OC Ops. He had been banging this air show groupie around the circuit. She was the daughter of the Guernsey Honda dealer.

He had written a very critical annual report on the OC of his subordinate unit. The OC, aware of OC Ops carry on shopped him to the staish. Monday morning my boss was getting substitution pay and the Ops Wg Entrance Board had a blank space.

They all forget that as they as they climb the greasy poll that those below, looking up, in our see Arseholes.

Having said in my original post that the QE's Captain's career was finished, I recall that a couple of Captains of Ark Royal who ran the ship aground entering harbour were both court martialled and went on to reach senior Flag rank....so maybe all is not lost for him. I'm referring to the Ark Royal R09 proper aircraft carrier of my era, rather than the later Ark Royal R07 mini aircraft carrier, until 1980 formally classified as a 'Through-deck Cruiser'.

The best trick seems to be to totally f#ck up in wartime, like the Sheffield.

Fox - I think that should be f*ck up in peacetime and do well in warfare, like Alan West, to bring your name to their Lordships' attention. Salt never forgave himself for the Sheffield mess.

Was that BBC radio programme "The Navy Lark" really just a comedy, or a documentary? I recall the collision of HMS Jupiter with London Bridge in 1984, after which the captain was court martialled in Portsmouth. I imagine that the aftermath of that episode may have led to a "reassignment", also.

Not like a Navy type to turn down a couple of tugs


..and Jupiter's captain turned down the use of tugboats too!

I think a court martial and loss of seniority was a route to promotion. More than a few dropped into the promotion bracket.

He may have been "reassigned", but he's still assigned as OIC of the ship and will sail her from Rosyth tomorrow.

Weird.

Penny Mordaunt seems quite smitten with the guy.

Plum - his ability as the ship's commanding officer is not in doubt. A small error of judgement in using what looks like a sales rep's car, even though he paid for the fuel, is what he is being sacked for. It's a punishment which is way beyond what it should be and has deprived the Navy of an able officer who would have achieved flag rank. That was almost guaranteed by his being in command of HMS Q.E.

Mordaunt is an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve and will approach the matter with a degree of commonsense that has been lacking so far. If there is no one available or with the ability or qualifications to take over command in a hurry then C-P would never refuse to take the ship back to sea until his relief was available. To tell them to stick it up their collective a*ses would be a serious matter and disrupt the ship's programme. His ability to command a ship was never in question - he has fallen foul of the modern worship of political correctness.

Jupiter was a real case of excessive hubris resulting in severe embarrassment. If he had completed the manoeuvre successfully without tugs he would be thought of as the 'right material' for promotion. The punishment is usually directly proportionate to where the f*ck up takes place. Someone I know very well hit a jetty at Portland right under the noses of the staff of Flag Officer Sea Training and was promptly relieved of his command. The damage was not severe and if it had occurred in some remote port would easily be repaired and forgotten but not when it happened at Portland.

The two carriers are berthed bow to stern in Rosyth. The skipper of PoW could quite literally jump off the bow onto the after end of QE's deck. There is no reason whatsoever for him not to sail his new charge round to Plymouth tomorrow.

It's clear that Mordaunt has made her input. She's his cheerleader in a high place.

The moral in the tale is that you can get away with almost anything if you've got the right friends in the right high places.

'Almost anything' would imply that something serious had taken place but it hasn't. It is 'written warning' stuff at the very best - even fine him the amount it would have cost him to hire a car like that for a few days. He hasn't smacked it into the Forth Bridge, had sex with anyone in his ship, been beastly to trans or gay people, given secrets away to the Russians or Chinese, or any of the hideous crimes that woke people are offended by.

As I said, Mordaunt will hopefully approach this with more commonsense than Williamson would have. I also suspect she's under a lot of pressure to get this stupid decision revoked. Do you personally know if the captain of PoW is available to 'jump off the bow onto QE's stern'? Is he actually in the ship at present?

A friend has sent me a copy of an article about this. It seems that Moorhouse will be taking over from his command of PoW on the 28th May. He'd better not commit any serious errors of judgement like stealing pens or whatever.

Stealing pens? Even not handing back the old one is Verboten.
I recall our OC A Flight stomping down to stores when informed that a new rule required he hand in his used permanent kneepad marker pen before he could be given a new one. He informed said stores type he would be canceling a four ship on a NATO mission, at a cost to the Treasury of about a quarter of a million quid, if he didn't get the requested pen. He got it.
F#cking insanity is nothing new to the stores and finance people.

FD2, you can't find him without a CM and it is probably too late to change things.

Officer selection

That Group Captain did well in civilian life.

He became a Prison Officer!

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote: ↑

Tue May 21, 2019 10:06 pm

Stealing pens? Even not handing back the old one is Verboten.
I recall our OC A Flight stomping down to stores when informed that a new rule required he hand in his used permanent kneepad marker pen before he could be given a new one. He informed said stores type he would be canceling a four ship on a NATO mission, at a cost to the Treasury of about a quarter of a million quid, if he didn't get the requested pen. He got it.
F#cking insanity is nothing new to the stores and finance people.

Before I was commissioned I was NCO i/c the Post Room at Brize. Part of my responsibilities was managing the Publications, Forms and Stationary Store. During the hand0ver I had it patiently explained to me how you had to get the defunct pen or chinagraph in your hand before you handed over a new one. There was a bin for the old ones. After the handover, when I was "flying solo" I put in an order for new stuff and was quite surprised when there was no requirement to send back the old stuff. I queried with HMSO who told me that there was no requirement and there never had been.

The troops at Brize could not believe their eyes when they were suddenly able to get as many pens and chinagraphs as their hearts desired and the old ones could be gleefully chucked in the bin.