i will add something to this.
a. because i think movers are superb.
b. the information is sparse
c. not enough of you moaners realise how much army/raf mover put in to making your lives easier than having to put up with the civ regs.
this from a qualified mover, still with his regt.
so i know both sides
.
email queries are welcome

AIR TROOPING – A GAME FOR ALL AGES

Air Trooping is a game of skill played between 2 teams. The first is called the ‘Army’ and is usually represented by an Infantry battalion. The second is called the ‘Air Force’ and is selected from part of the RAF Air Movements organisation. The game is played on a 4-dimensional board – to be purchased separately – and involves the transportation from corner (the APOE) to the other (the APOD). Progress across the board is subject to a series of handicaps.

Play is initiated by an external agency called ‘The Defence Staff’ (who may be represented by a group called ‘PJHQ’). The Unit to be moved and its destination are selected at random – to achieve maximum surprise (regardless of actual State of Readiness), teams are to be informed at the last possible moment to make the move feasible and without regard to any other contrary instructions already issued.

Following the start of play, each team tries to score points off the other until the destination is reached, the Army runs out of troops or the Air Force runs our of serviceable aircraft. The Army can resign from play at any time by adapting its exercise to SPTA (or similar UK trg area). Points are awarded at each development phase in play.

During basic planning (if it takes place at all), the Army scores 50 points if it can persuade the Air Force to emplane its troops at an airfield within a convenient distance to the Unit being moved. The score is doubled if the airfield is devoid of all ground handling equipment and normally confined to light aircraft. The Air Force gains 50 points if the Army is compelled to leave from Lyneham or Brize Norton, and bonus points are issues if the road journey to these locations exceed subsequent flying distance.

The payload quoted by the Army in planning should in no way resemble the freight actually delivered for loading. The manifests should be worded in such a way that no formal reproach is possible between the 2 HQs. If the Air Force can identify any discrepancies, it gains 20 points, and a further 50 if the correspondence can be elevated to 2-star level.

When allocating aircraft to the move, the Air Force gains 20 points for every C-130 it can configure in the full passenger role, with a bonus of 10 points if the flight time exceeds 5 hours. The score will be doubled if the C-130s are overtaken in flight by VC10s or Tristars configured in the freight role and carrying the Air Force support staff.

Each team may make full use of conflicting and badly worded orders, and 20 points will be awarded to the issuer for any change not acted upon, for which the recipients’ own chain of command can be demonstrated to be at fault.

It is appreciated that the time of the Unit’s arrival at the APOE and the actual departure will bear no resemblance to actual published information. The Army may claim 1 point for every minute by which the time interval can or is shortened; and the Air Force may claim a similar bonus for the unnecessarily early arrival of the Army. Both sides may make use of obscure phrases hidden deep in Op Orders, such as ‘all times Tango’.

The Army may be permitted to play a joker by loading the freight on board the aircraft themselves, and by agreeing to the supervision of this activity. The Army will be awarded 50 points for each aircraft loaded on time and for which the Captain or Loadmaster can find no valid reason for insisting on re-loading or re-lashing. The Air Force will allocate troops to individual aircraft and so ensure that no aircraft contains any recognisable sub-unit of the Army’s organisation, and may claim 1 point for each man separated from his Platoon or Company.

Each soldier is to be briefed at Platoon, Company and Battalion level as to his baggage allowance and DAC. This information will be repeated by the ATLO and the Duty Air Mov Offr, as well as the Loadmaster. 10 more points will be awarded for each soldier who exceeds the weight allowance by more than 20%, and a further 10 points will be awarded for any man who reached the steps openly carrying a hexamine stove, butane lighter, Leatherman tool or thunder flash. Where applicable, the Air Force can claim 10 points per man for every reasonable answer to the question “Why does my personal weapon have to go through the X-ray machine”.

En route, the Air Force will be penalised heavily (100 points) for aircraft failures requiring overnight stops at Gander, Goose Bay or Paderborn. Points will be similarly recouped for unscheduled stops at Nairobi, Singapore or Hawaii. The Air Force will gain 50 points if it can persuade the Army to remain in the departure lounge by claiming imminent departure, and these points will be doubled if the aircraft can then be declared ‘U/S’ because the crew has exceeded its duty time. The Air Force can gain a substantial lead if an overnight delay can be arranged. 1 point is awarded for every soldier compelled to stay in transit accommodation, and bonus points are added for each new man made to share in excess of the room’s capacity. The Air Force gain a further 50 points if they manage to get an officer allocated to the same room as his Platoon if at the same time the crew can find hotel accommodation in the nearest city. Points increase with the hotel’s star rating. The Air Force is likely to gain heavily during this period of play.

Arrival at the APOD offers both teams the opportunity for good scoring. A prompt arrival is valued exceptionally for the Air Force at 50 points. The Army may reduce this score for each piece of baggage that the Air Force has mislaid, and this will usually be weighted to achieve parity. The Air Force can claim 10 points if it can announce that the Unit Commander’s baggage was off-loaded en route, and a further 20 points if this turns out to be true.

ON arrival, the scores are compared and if the Air Force wins, it begins the return move with a bonus of 200 points. If the Army win, they can opt for return by civilian sea or air charter.

Finally, the game has many variations and can be played both operationally and non-operationally. Clearly, it defies any form of computer modelling, operational analysis and team management but is likely to continue being played for many years to come.

Originally Posted by Acid_Tin

AIR TROOPING – A GAME FOR ALL AGES

Air Trooping is a game of skill played between 2 teams. The first is called the ‘Army’ and is usually represented by an Infantry battalion. The second is called the ‘Air Force’ and is selected from part of the RAF Air Movements organisation. The game is played on a 4-dimensional board – to be purchased separately – and involves the transportation from corner (the APOE) to the other (the APOD). Progress across the board is subject to a series of handicaps.

Play is initiated by an external agency called ‘The Defence Staff’ (who may be represented by a group called ‘PJHQ’). The Unit to be moved and its destination are selected at random – to achieve maximum surprise (regardless of actual State of Readiness), teams are to be informed at the last possible moment to make the move feasible and without regard to any other contrary instructions already issued.

Following the start of play, each team tries to score points off the other until the destination is reached, the Army runs out of troops or the Air Force runs our of serviceable aircraft. The Army can resign from play at any time by adapting its exercise to SPTA (or similar UK trg area). Points are awarded at each development phase in play.

During basic planning (if it takes place at all), the Army scores 50 points if it can persuade the Air Force to emplane its troops at an airfield within a convenient distance to the Unit being moved. The score is doubled if the airfield is devoid of all ground handling equipment and normally confined to light aircraft. The Air Force gains 50 points if the Army is compelled to leave from Lyneham or Brize Norton, and bonus points are issues if the road journey to these locations exceed subsequent flying distance.

The payload quoted by the Army in planning should in no way resemble the freight actually delivered for loading. The manifests should be worded in such a way that no formal reproach is possible between the 2 HQs. If the Air Force can identify any discrepancies, it gains 20 points, and a further 50 if the correspondence can be elevated to 2-star level.

When allocating aircraft to the move, the Air Force gains 20 points for every C-130 it can configure in the full passenger role, with a bonus of 10 points if the flight time exceeds 5 hours. The score will be doubled if the C-130s are overtaken in flight by VC10s or Tristars configured in the freight role and carrying the Air Force support staff.

Each team may make full use of conflicting and badly worded orders, and 20 points will be awarded to the issuer for any change not acted upon, for which the recipients’ own chain of command can be demonstrated to be at fault.

It is appreciated that the time of the Unit’s arrival at the APOE and the actual departure will bear no resemblance to actual published information. The Army may claim 1 point for every minute by which the time interval can or is shortened; and the Air Force may claim a similar bonus for the unnecessarily early arrival of the Army. Both sides may make use of obscure phrases hidden deep in Op Orders, such as ‘all times Tango’.

The Army may be permitted to play a joker by loading the freight on board the aircraft themselves, and by agreeing to the supervision of this activity. The Army will be awarded 50 points for each aircraft loaded on time and for which the Captain or Loadmaster can find no valid reason for insisting on re-loading or re-lashing. The Air Force will allocate troops to individual aircraft and so ensure that no aircraft contains any recognisable sub-unit of the Army’s organisation, and may claim 1 point for each man separated from his Platoon or Company.

Each soldier is to be briefed at Platoon, Company and Battalion level as to his baggage allowance and DAC. This information will be repeated by the ATLO and the Duty Air Mov Offr, as well as the Loadmaster. 10 more points will be awarded for each soldier who exceeds the weight allowance by more than 20%, and a further 10 points will be awarded for any man who reached the steps openly carrying a hexamine stove, butane lighter, Leatherman tool or thunder flash. Where applicable, the Air Force can claim 10 points per man for every reasonable answer to the question “Why does my personal weapon have to go through the X-ray machine”.

En route, the Air Force will be penalised heavily (100 points) for aircraft failures requiring overnight stops at Gander, Goose Bay or Paderborn. Points will be similarly recouped for unscheduled stops at Nairobi, Singapore or Hawaii. The Air Force will gain 50 points if it can persuade the Army to remain in the departure lounge by claiming imminent departure, and these points will be doubled if the aircraft can then be declared ‘U/S’ because the crew has exceeded its duty time. The Air Force can gain a substantial lead if an overnight delay can be arranged. 1 point is awarded for every soldier compelled to stay in transit accommodation, and bonus points are added for each new man made to share in excess of the room’s capacity. The Air Force gain a further 50 points if they manage to get an officer allocated to the same room as his Platoon if at the same time the crew can find hotel accommodation in the nearest city. Points increase with the hotel’s star rating. The Air Force is likely to gain heavily during this period of play.

Arrival at the APOD offers both teams the opportunity for good scoring. A prompt arrival is valued exceptionally for the Air Force at 50 points. The Army may reduce this score for each piece of baggage that the Air Force has mislaid, and this will usually be weighted to achieve parity. The Air Force can claim 10 points if it can announce that the Unit Commander’s baggage was off-loaded en route, and a further 20 points if this turns out to be true.

ON arrival, the scores are compared and if the Air Force wins, it begins the return move with a bonus of 200 points. If the Army win, they can opt for return by civilian sea or air charter.

Finally, the game has many variations and can be played both operationally and non-operationally. Clearly, it defies any form of computer modelling, operational analysis and team management but is likely to continue being played for many years to come.

This is not a game; this is the real deal!

Good post! I have a copy of this in my office for those moments of sadness that occur in the life of the Movement Controller, these are caused by disbelief at the idiocy of the remainder of the army, who, when the word movement is mentioned seem to take leave of their senses...

Mr. Tin, I am "In Awe"... The crabs (I believe it's a technical term...) that I know have pissed their sides laughing at this! Apart from the movers and aircrew, who're worried that the game's up - but as you point out, it's a game likely to be played out for years :(

Acid Tin,

What a fantastic post. Well done!

Unfortunately, you erred in one area. The team 'Air Force' is represented by 'No. 2 Gp, RAF', not the RAF Air Movements organisation.

The movement staff, be they crab blue or remf green, are the poor bast@rrrrds who have sit in between this trial of gamesmanship. It's the poor mover who has to tell the 'Army' that the 'Air Force' has just gained 50 points by delaying the flight 6 hours, and the poor mover who has to confiscate kit because the Bergen is overweight - even though the bearer has been told what the limit is over and over again ad nauseum - it's not their fault if you didn't fekking listen in to yr plt, coy, btn, ..., briefings - is it?.

etc. etc.

Remember, we all hate the movers because they always seem to have bad news following them around. But that's just the point: they are the bearers of the bad news - NOT the instigators!

Mind you, if you've ever had to deal with the tw@ts in 162 or 163, then all bets are off. "Specialists" - my ARRSE!

Congratulations to the mover at BZN who abused some poor bod for wearing his beret between getting off the bus from Fairford and into the arrivals hall.

Here's a clue: there haven't been any aircraft at Brize for several weeks now and there won't be for several more.

Muppet.

MSR

Originally Posted by msr

Congratulations to the mover at BZN who abused some poor bod for wearing his beret between getting off the bus from Fairford and into the arrivals hall.

Here's a clue: there haven't been any aircraft at Brize for several weeks now and there won't be for several more.

Muppet.

MSR

What a chopper, I assume he was light-blue?

I can tell you why people hate movers. It is because everyone has a story like this: this happened four days ago to my colleagues from Bulfordistan (true dit).

They reported to South Cerney 6 hours before their flight was due to leave Fairford (all of 15 minutes away) bound for Lisbon. The runway at Fairford had ice on it so the crabs sent out the de-icing truck. The de-icing truck skidded on the ice and crashed, ending up on its side!. Their back up plan was to rely on Ra, the sun god to melt the ice. Fair play Ra delivered and the VC-10 took off at midday (5hrs late). However the 40yr old pride of the fleet Victor lost half of it electrics and had to turn back 90 minutes in to the flight after dumping its fuel into the Bristol Channel. They then had to overnight at Cerney before being told that they would be going out the next day on a shiny C-17 (remember we only lease them, they are not ours). The C-17 powered up the next day and reported a fault. A replacement part arrived and bless, it was the wrong one. However it could be made to work if it was modified. Permission for the mod would have to come from Boing which would take another 24 hours. my colleaagues decided that in order to achieve success they would part company with the RAF and 21 of them flew out on a BA flight from Heathrow (41 hours and £3000 after they reported to South Cerney). It makes you want to weep.

The bit that hurts and marks them down as worse than a bunch of Ryanair jobsworths is that they assume:

1. That your time has absolutely no value.
2. That you are happy to sit in a form of suspended animation without access to food, entertainment, or external communications.

Even the servisair bods working for Ryanair will attempt to sound apologetic when giving you bad news. They will start to offer alternatives and tell you when you need to start thinking about refunds. They will appear to be concerned at your plight and not sport an obvious hardon at your discomfort.

Whilst I dislike movers as much as the next man, I do not understand how the failure of the USAF (who operate RAF Fairford) to effectively operate the runway de-icing kit, the government's failure to purchase modern aircraft and the RAF's desire to operate aircraft safely can be blamed upon the movers.

Having been through South Cerney several times I sympathise with the frustration at the sheer pointlessness of it. However, I have also sat for long periods at various airheads, with aeromed patients, waiting for late units or individuals to arrive, and then start taking DAC out of their baggage, locating paperwork and so on. Even going out on Op Telic there were cretins arriving who had put their body armour in their hold baggage, missing all the signs and announcements (not to mention joining instructions) until they reached the check-in desk. It all caused delays for everyone else.