Page 20 - QARANC Vol 14 No 8 2014

18 QARANC THE GAZETTE
95th Birthday Celebrations
I received an invitation for 17 December 2013 by Col (Retd) Maggie Slattery asking if I wished to join her and Col Roberts for tea & cake to celebrate Col (Retd) Margaret Robert’s 95 Birthday.
I arrived at Col Roberts’ House and was greeted by Col Slattery and Denise Ledgerwood, a family friend, to see that the flowers and birthday card from the QARANC Association had arrived that morning.
It was a lovely morning spent with Margaret, finding out about her time in the Corps, how she met her husband (a pilot) and especially how she came to meet the Pope (you can see the photo on the wall behind us). We managed two slices of cake, a small glass of Prosecco and tea.
A delightful way to spend a morning.
H Duncombe QARANC Regt Sec
Margaret’s 95th birthday
Sword of Honour
us all to bond quickly and learn to work well as platoons. There was of course a little lively competition thrown in for good measure at which, unfortunately, my platoon were soundly trounced.
The Sword of Honour? Well collecting that was perhaps the greatest test due to brief and rather frantic bit of sword drill during our parade preparations. The rehearsals resulted in a novel drill move of unknown name and origin that is unlikely to make it into any drill manual, and a self inflicted duelling scar.
We all successfully commissioned on the 12th December 2013 and are currently conducting our Entry Officer Course at Defence Medical Services Training Group (DMSTG).
Rebecca Moll
2Lt
The sword of honour is an award presented to the top cadet in a single intake at Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) as decided by the directing staff of that particular course. In the most recent Professionally Qualified Officers (PQO) Course I was the fortunate and somewhat shocked recipient of this award.
The course itself was a mixture of intense learning and a lot of running around on the training area getting wet and muddy, becoming all too familiar with the fondly named ‘track-plan diet’, an experience both exhausting and oddly enjoyable. We engaged early with PTIs and were put through our paces in the gym, on the running track,
tabbing across the area and facing the assault course and battle PT. These aspects of the course transformed us from wheezing civilians to army officers and prepared us well for the exercises that we undertook.
The PQO course was made up of professionals from the Army Medical Services (AMS), Chaplains Department and the Army Legal Service, providing both versatility and a huge amount of experience and knowledge. Amongst the members of the PQO course were two other nurses who proved to be a font of knowledge for me having both previously served as Sergeants in the QARANC. The arduous nature of some of our course elements allowed