Even more adventures in Defence Force

This is the third article concerning my time doing my national service, of which I spent the major part of two years between 1975 and 1977 at the Durban Naval Command, which was established to supply a navy base to Durban and to control operations of small craft and employees responsible for the Durban Naval Base.

At the time of my arrival, the Navy was in the process of establishing the strike craft flotilla, a Navy unit which consisted of the strike craft. The strike craft were vessels just over 100 ft long which were well-armed. The only problem with them was that they were designed for the Israeli Navy and consequently were adapted to operate in calm waters. The waters off Durban can be described as many things, but calm is not one of them. Consequently, the crew of the strike craft had a very tough time indeed.

However, my job was not at sea, but ashore, and because I was an engineer, the Navy had mistakenly thought I was quite experienced and consequently gave me a senior position to take over the job of the engineering officer, who until my arrival was responsible for engineering for a number of ships that had been retired. It’s a long story, but the short result was that there was a staff of some 105 people who ultimately were the responsibility of a sublieutenant who was a 25-year-old undergraduate.

When I first got to acquaint myself with the staff appointed to me, they were in many ways slightly shocked. The senior member of my staff, Warrant Officer Van der Merwe, could see the difficulties that might arise and made sure he pre-empted them. Consequently, I ended up with a large staff who, provided I didn’t do anything to rock the boat, ensured things ran fairly smoothly.

The rules of accommodation were that single officers were accommodated on the base, which led to its own fill of navy protocol. For example, every Friday the officers’ accommodation (known as The Wardroom) conducted choir practice. This was an activity which lasted from 5 o’clock until 7 o’clock and involved beer, wine and had nothing to do with singing.

Once a month, the officers had to attend a formal mess, which again had its formalities. These formalities consisted of wearing ornate clothing and any medals or other adornment. There were formal proposals to the State President and, of course, as is the case, in all defence forces, to the ladies – God bless ’em.

It wasn’t all beer and skittles. The senior staff officer made all the officers run around the base on a Friday afternoon carrying a rifle. It was a requirement that this exercise was finished within a certain period. I recall it being of the order of about 13 minutes for a 2 km distance. If you were too unfit to run, there was a requirement for walking. If you failed to complete within the necessary time, you had to repeat it on a Saturday until the necessary time was achieved.

Every month, I was required to attend a formal inspection and parade of the staff of the base. The inspection was carried out with officers such as the logistics officer, the parade officer, the weapons electrical officer, myself, and so on. Here we were required to provide reports on our status and file these in the form of records.

All this accommodated a period some 50 years ago and was a time of great interest. I made some of the best friends of my life in the Navy and I learned many things about “getting the job done” which were of great use in the subsequent time of my life. I also came out superfit. The period of national service for many white men has been forgotten. I’m not sure at all if national service has been replaced or how the Navy performs these days. It is quite probable that the formalities of my time have been forgotten and it is probable that nobody attends Church parade on Friday afternoons.