One of our Year 5 pupils won a competition on Families Day to be the Station Warrant Officer (SWO) for the day. Of course we could not let her miss out on such a fantastic opportunity and this is how her day went....
1. During the Station Families Day, a low tech E-Bay event was held. One of the auction items was for a child to be ‘SWO’ for a day. The event lasted for 2 hours and there was a final mad dash by some to win the prize. There were eventually two winners and they agreed to share the prize, pay the same amount and to have 2 separate days for each winner.
Today I was up at half past six to get ready for my big day. Today I was going to be SWO; it stands for Station Warrant Officer. I was really excited and I got in to my smart uniform and as quick as a flash I was on my way and ready to start. When we got to the pass office the SWO was already there. When they both left it was me and the SWO left together, so he took me inside the pass office and presented me with the power stick and hat. He showed me how to hold the power stick and how to salute with it then we were outside saying good morning to everyone.
At eight o’clock we were standing outside and saluting as the flag went up. The salute was the length of the two whistle blows which was about ten seconds apart. Then the SWO showed me his office and we then went to see the station commander, I told him my favourite three helicopters and he asked if I could take over and I said maybe!
Soon we left to go and have a break at the Merlin department and I was shown a draw of magic that the SWO had never seen before, it contained lots of biscuits and chocolate bars! Everyone apologized and offered him one but he said no and we then went to find someone to show us round the Merlins and I was shown the parts and I also inspected it to make sure it was clean unfortunately it was so they got back to work and we carried on.
Later on in the day we went to regiment 606 and they gave me a very special coin and told me it was 15 years old. Wow! We weren’t there for long though, we soon went to get some white gloves to inspect a Sgt's office however before that the SWO had arranged a surprise inspection of four volunteering people in their no.1’s. The first, third and fourth were very smart but the second person had his belt poking out and he got told off, he apologised and the SWO said it was probably too much alcohol at the weekend!
Then it was time to inspect Sgt Platt’s office in the Puma section. I took out the gloves and ran them across the keyboard of the computer. The clean white gloves were dirty, so he got a big telling off and I said he had to find an apron and a feather duster and do some cleaning. Then we got Sgt Platt to show me around the Pumas and very soon we were off to the Clothing Stores and a man showed me around all the jackets, hats and shoes.
We then went to the Admin HQ and at the bottom of the stairs there was a bike and one man tried to escape without me seeing him, but I caught him and I asked if the bike down stairs was his and it was, so I told him to move it and he got told off but let off because of his age! We then went next door and I saw a friend's mum we had a chat and then went to see the guard force and in one room some were relaxing and in the other room they geared me up with the gun, jacket and helmet. It was heavy! I took it off soon though, then we went to the Naffy Caffy for a drink and I wrote my notes on what I had done so far.
We then went to the school to see Mrs. Fawdry and tell her what I had been up to so far and soon it was lunch time. We walked to the mess for lunch and my mum and dad were there already there. Then we all went in and got our lunch I had two fish cakes, some beans and some chips then we went to relax in a different room and we then left to go see the lady who likes to call herself the SWO’s boss and tell her what I did. I was then awarded a certificate and was taken back to school.