Movements

However, it’s not all doom and
gloom - we’ve (almost) managed
to break two corporals out of
the Aviation Safety posts at BSN
and KDH. A slack handful of RAF
Musicians came available (rather
like a supermarket special offer
- buy one, get one free), so we
nabbed them and are about to
start using them for our own
dark purposes.... Otherwise,
life carries on in its own little
way out in the ‘Stan. We do
hope to transfer the CATO posts
from KBL to KDH in the New
Year thus reducing the number
of movers in that part of the
world, hopefully. One other piece of news
- we’re trying to obtain the short term
lease of 3 x Rough Terrain FLTs to replace
those nasty old Liftking things. This will
be for up to a year and is intended as a
stopgap until a long term replacement can
be procured. A potential candidate has
been identified and is being checked out,
unfortunately the example shown at the
recent WO’s conference was lacking one
minor detail.......tines. We’re hoping the
real thing might just come with the pointy
bits attached.
Those are the main op highlights - what
can we draw out of that little spiel? Simple
really, a continuing shortage of manpower.
The op tempo is right up there and is
likely to remain so. Indeed, it may even
increase with, for example, the need to
increase manning at EID. Supporting these
extensive commitments continues to cause
pain across the board, regardless of unit
size or location. The ongoing transfer of
the DWR commitment to UKMAMS is
helping the wider Trade, with approx 30
NFU slots now struck off the list. However,
we still have real concerns about our ability
to sustain the current pace of life.
From the dizzy heights of my first floor
office each day sees a succession of crises
and I don’t just mean those involving the
lack of chocolate biscuits to dunk in my tea.
Trying to support all the op commitments,
and let’s remember, that also involves a
considerable amount of work here in the
UK (eg ammo outloads from BZZ), while
also meeting exercise and admin tasks is
what they call a ‘challenge’ in staff officer
speak. But you already knew that - what
you want to know is what are we highly
paid, intelligent and extremely good
looking staff officers doing about it?
The simple answer is the SMR, but
that, of course, is a longer-term fix.
As regards the here and now, we’re
constantly looking at novel solutions that
will release more manpower to go and
fight the good fight. A few examples:
supporting BZZ with CMLO manpower
from ALD; releasing Movers from guarding
commitments at BZZ and LYE;
extensive use of NHT personnel
to reforce UKMAMS and the
MSFs; grabbing every Auxiliary
that we can lay our hands on.
These are just some of the
ways in which we are trying
to make best use of every
possible manning resource.
And yes, we do try and inject
reality into some of the more
obscure requests that come
our way - every request for
support is scrutinised and
rejected, if not essential. That
said, if you have any bright
ideas please let us know (just
remember that some things are outside
my gift - I can’t order the retreat from
Afghanistan). We may have looked at it
already but we don’t claim to have the
monopoly on original thinking (don’t look
so surprised!).
Having spread a thick layer of doom and
gloom there are a few bright spots. We’ve
laid our hands on a pot of money from 2
Gp (no, we didn’t steal it) which is going
to pay for 25 SERCO personnel to reforce
BZZ AMS, and to pay for more Auxiliary
Man Training Days in UK - think local
reforce for units. Rejection of DXP tasking
for UKMAMS is also being authorised by
this office to allow them to concentrate
on op support and the maintenance of
their Force Readiness Cycle. Lastly, we
may also be considering forming a crack
team of Movs-qualified Supply Officers
who will be parachuted into the areas of
greatest need with explicit instructions to
make the tea, collect strops and generally
get in the way. The idea is to spread fear
and confusion…amongst the enemy, not
the Movers!
1
Name changed to protect the innocent....oh,
what the heck, Neil Baldock.
Movements 33