Petra Henderson
Signalman
The Royal Corps of Signals
Dates Served: 9th December 1971 - 12th March 1976
Duty Stations: Signal Regiment, Catterrick. 11th Signal Regiment, Catterrick(Yorkshire, England). 4th Division HQ & Signals Regt. (Herford, Germany)
E-mail: petrahenderson@yahoo.com
Home Page: http://welcome.to/petras.glasshouse
Petra is a veteran of the U.K. armed forces, and our first member from a European NATO service. We are honored to welcome her.
When I asked Petra to clarify just what her rank was (I really don't know much about the grade structure of our allies), Petra replied... "Virtually none, I stayed Signalman, which is similar to PFC, but had undertaken and been awarded BIII(Corporal) a BII level (= Basic Sergeant) and was put in charge of a detachment of men and radio relay vehicle, equipment, etc., I kept turning down the actual promotion because I did not want to be coerced into extending my contract and staying longer than I had agreed to. I also rejected the BI test and that did not make me popular with my C.O. for whom I often worked as a secretary (occasionally using the pink "stencil repair fluid" for the Gestner printer as nail varnish, which could be wiped of with a paper towel in seconds where required!) I loved the secretary job, and could pretend (to myself) to be a WRAC (same as your WAC) in uniform."
Petra also informs me that
the term "Duty Stations" is properly referred to as "Postings" in the UK.