THE NAVAL ENGINEER

7
as the spectator area was three
miles away in Weymouth itself: this
significantly improved throughput of
the search areas as people got to
know what activated the scanners
and what they could retain on their
person.
When not on duty there was
the opportunity to explore the
Chesil Beach area and walks and
runs on the Jurassic Coastal path
were popular, as was sampling the
nightlife in ‘Weybiza.’ Interestingly,
the local taxi drivers spoke of the
trade being down on a normal
summer. In their opinion, visitor
numbers were overestimated,
resulting in hotels cancelling their
normal coach-trip companies
in the promise of better paying
guests who did not appear.
Personnel Search Area
Archery and
boxing Flag
Ceremonial
Team
By WO2 Stirling “Spike” Way
Submarine Admin + Personnel,
NBC Devonport
I am WO2 Stirling “Spike” Way
and was nominated as the team
leader for flag raising duties at the
Olympic archery and boxing victory
ceremonies.
Initial training took place at MWS.
This included a baseline flag-raising
drill along with plenty of other
briefings about security, the media
and what to expect from LOCOG. We
were then all left until the seemingly
chaotic roll-call at Feltham Barracks
a week before the event. We were all
perhaps a little concerned because
there were literally thousands
of troops milling about and all
apparently living in huge field tents
bolted into the parade ground!
Upon arrival at Woolwich Barracks
our fears were allayed, being
accommodated in real buildings,
with real facilities like running
water, showers even! Compared
to the horrors of Tea Wharf where
1500 personnel were ‘living’ in a
warehouse, we were indeed living
the dream! OK it was a Transit
Accom dream but certainly not the
nightmare most others were likely to
be experiencing.
Training for flag-raising was patience
draining but you know there are
worse places to be left waiting
for something to happen than the
England changing room at Lords.
Lunch was a pretty arduous affair
also… You can imagine the trauma
we felt eating it while looking over
the hallowed turf from the executive
lounge. Tough times indeed.
After the training we were quickly
into the detail with Archery starting
straight away. There were plenty of
highlights with respect to the sport,
but for us a lot of the enjoyment
was derived from watching how
the ‘Professional Event Organisers’
rushed around, while we pretty much
chilled out as everyone else seemed
to be losing their heads. Some were
quite taken aback at how relaxed
we were and how quickly we could
switch to “Doing our job” role – for us
it wasn’t exactly rocket science.
At the ExCel centre it was very
different because we were right
in the pugilistic mix. Again the
Organisers rushed around while we
were able to take the opportunity of
interacting with the boxers. Meeting
the British and Irish winners was
certainly a highlight along with
speaking at length with Wladimir
Klitschko, the Super Heavy Weight
Champion of the world. And with a
roof over us the atmosphere was
almost overwhelming; certainly the
proudest moment was being able
to salute the Union Flag raised
for Nicola Adams, the first female
boxing gold medallist in Olympic
history.
For us all the organisation
was good with regard to
accommodation and travel
arrangements. Indeed it was a
joy to be so readily welcomed
wherever we went, certainly
members of London Transport
and the Police were all keen to
acknowledge us in uniform, while
the public frequently just started
speaking with us or wanted a
photograph with them surrounded
by Servicemen.
For us in Team 8, it was brilliant!