The 'career officer'

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Boac
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The 'career officer'

#1 Post by Boac »

Ex-A's mention of 'Station Duty Officer' for 2 weeks' as a punishment leads me to wonder if any of our exmil folk have stories of 'Secondary Duties'? The RN allocated 'Divisional Officer' duties and I don't know if they had other 'secondaries'?

Mine comes from my second tour, my first 'operational tour', at Leuchars, when a really good boss mistakenly decided he could see potential Air Rank in this junior pilot and awarded him the secondary duty of 'Officers' Mess Secretary' which required attendance and involvement in all Mess matters and standing in for the actual civilian geezer when he went on his hols, including running the Mess accounts. I was not best pleased, I have to say, but did my best. All to no avail, however.

When I arrived as an OCU instructor I was told I was to be guard of honour commander for the AOC's inspection. This decision by a buffoon Sqn Ldr who knew nothing about my sword drill or marching capabilities (nor the state of my uniform hat...) and did not listen to my protestations, was in error. Needless to say that idiot went on to achieve Air rank as some sadly did. The parade was not a total failure, but I did feel sorry for the guard guys who did their very best against overwhelming odds - me.

Fortunately by the time I arrived on my last Op tour at Gutersloh my true potential was realised and I was appointed 'Officer i/c the Squadron Fish Tank', a duty which I carried out perfectly, with happy fish.
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Re: The 'career officer'

#2 Post by CharlieOneSix »

After Dartmouth my Course was held back for 6 weeks before we went to Linton to start flying training. We were sent to Victory for a Divisional Officers' Course to fill part of the gap. A lot of it was play acting with us defending our miscreant at Commander's Defaulters. The miscreants were long serving other ranks on the Staff and the scenarios and excuses given for their pretend misdemeanours were on occasion a hilarious comedy of errors where it was difficult to keep a straight face. I was defending one guy, too long a story to recount in detail, which involved the sailor being late back to the ship in some far off port supposedly because the horse on his horse drawn taxi died whilst climbing a steep hill.....

Other jobs - whilst now learning on helicopters I took my turn at being supervised by the Officer of the Watch in the Guardroom at Culdrose as a Midshipman. I was OOW4 so very low down the pecking order. Once frontline on Ark Royal I graduated to OOW2 but only when in harbour - mainly making sure that after a run ashore the hordes of drunken sailors were fit enough to be taken to their messdecks by their slightly more sober colleagues. If one of the drunks got aggressive and threatening, you had to ensure that he didn't aggravate the offence by landing a punch, even if that meant running away from him...which I had to do on one occasion! Being a Supplementary List officer rather than a career General List officer I never made it to OOW but FD2 will have done.....

On my first Squadron I was Divisional Officer to some of our long serving Petty Officers. I often wondered what they thought of having this wet behind the ears 20 year old (just) Sub Lieutenant as their DO. A couple of years later at Culdrose on the Wessex 3 Trials Unit my allocated jobs were Site Officer, Fire Officer and Photographic Officer, all at the same time.

One really fun job was Officer of the Patrol when Ark visited Oslo. Based at a Police Station with my opposite number from the heavy cruiser USS Newport News, a slow night became interesting when the Police Chief suggested he take both teams to raid a few brothels.......
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Re: The 'career officer'

#3 Post by Ex-Ascot »

Golly where does one start. One at a time. First was Officer I/C Cpls club at RAF Northolt. Only Officer allowed in there and they always bought me drinks. Came to an annual inventory and there was a wardrobe missing. Apparently they had run out of charcoal at a BBQ. Written off. Just waiting for a ship will post others in due course.
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Re: The 'career officer'

#4 Post by G~Man »

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Thu Sep 12, 2024 4:19 am
There was a wardrobe missing. Apparently they had run out of charcoal at a BBQ.
Reminds me of a crew Bar-B-Que in Akrotiri once when I was on the Nimrod Flight Trials Crew...... Turned into a bonfire and there were 13 rooms in the Officers and Sergeants mess that ended up with just beds remaining......

There was also the rumor, (never confirmed), the time a crew had just left Jacksonville Florida and ended up in Akrotiri---they put their "pet alligator" in the fish pond and it ate the fish. Supposedly it was donated to a zoo.

And we always wondered why Nimrod crews were not welcome. B-) B-)
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Re: The 'career officer'

#5 Post by Ex-Ascot »

Did OM sec which was terrible. Also OM library, which was good. For my last 8 years I managed to persuade them that my para dropping for RAFSPA was a secondary duty. Got paid for that.

Also in charge of a barrack block once. That was interesting.
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Re: The 'career officer'

#6 Post by Boac »

G~ are you saying these were your secondary duties, then? :))
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Re: The 'career officer'

#7 Post by G~Man »

Boac wrote:
Thu Sep 12, 2024 6:13 pm
G~ are you saying these were your secondary duties, then? :))
Haha....I may or may not have been OIC firewood procurement...... :)) :))
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Re: The 'career officer'

#8 Post by Ex-Ascot »

I forgot one. Sqn F540 (?). Sqn history records. That was a pain.

Always thought that it was quite reiculous that secondary, duties were more important than primary in getting promoted. Had a friend who was a keen cricketer. OIC station cricket. Made AVM.
'Yes, Madam, I am drunk, but in the morning I shall be sober and you will still be ugly.' Sir Winston Churchill.
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Re: The 'career officer'

#9 Post by G-CPTN »

You never know when a conflict will be decided by a game of cricket.
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Re: The 'career officer'

#10 Post by ricardian »

Ex-Ascot wrote:
Thu Sep 12, 2024 4:19 am
Golly where does one start. One at a time. First was Officer I/C Cpls club at RAF Northolt. Only Officer allowed in there and they always bought me drinks. Came to an annual inventory and there was a wardrobe missing. Apparently they had run out of charcoal at a BBQ. Written off. Just waiting for a ship will post others in due course.
I was billeted at Northolt 1964-65 with assorted Telegraphists, Teleprinter Operators, Cryptographic Mechanics, Telegraph Fitters, Radar Fitters, etc and we all commuted via the Underground between Ruislip Gardens & Charing Cross, thence to MOD Air (Defence Commcen) on 24/7 shift work. We tried to avoid having anything to do with RAF Northolt and I never even knew that there was a Cpls Club!
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Re: The 'career officer'

#11 Post by FD2 »

Late to this thread I'm afraid.

Secondary duties could be either important ones or fairly simple ones allocated to the most junior squadron officers and usually known as 'faeces little jobs' that were considered to be beneath the more senior folk. When I joined 819 Squadron at Prestwick I was given the job of Staff Officer which mainly meant sitting in the staff office with our Leading Writer doing stuff for the Boss, checking mail, drafting the more secretive stuff and generally avoiding the nastier boring flights by not drinking coffee when the Senior Pilot was looking for 'volunteers'.

A friend who was leaving had the secondary duty of being 'in charge' of the fuel dump on the airfield at Tiree and he persuaded the Boss that I would be the ideal person to take on that onerous duty. The 'facility' in an exposed shed consisted of a lot of drums of AVTUR, hoses, several tarpaulins and a wobble pump and was there to refuel aircraft for long range SAR, sub chasing etc. A scenic flight up to Tiree and a walk around the 'facility' checking off what was on his slop chit, followed by a chat to the people in the Tower (the ATCO I found had been at school with me) and a gentle flight back to Prestwick before signing for it all and that was it. Until I came to hand over to someone else when we found that one of the tarps was missing so I was charged money for it. That was the secondary duty known as SNOT - senior naval officer Tiree.

Social Secretary was also not very onerous. Organising piss ups, wedding presents and leaving mugs and that was about it. Divisional officer was more serious - a section of the junior rates was allocated and we were responsible for their progress up the greasy chain of promotion, pay, representing them at captain's table if they had misbehaved etc. It was a big black mark if something important had been missed but generally the lads were well acquainted with what they were entitled to.

Officer of the Day when the ship was alongside as C16 has mentioned could be exciting or terrible - dealing with stroppy drunks or standing by the gangway for hours in freezing weather which in the long ago would have been accompanied by the sound of cannonballs crashing off their brass monkeys. Officer of the Watch duties in carriers were on a much bigger scale with many more well oiled folk to watch out for. Luckily there were usually many squadron officers onboard to share the duties around and disembarking to a nearby airfield was even better!
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