The Hague Naval Barracks

Directorate of Materiel Royal Netherlands Navy (DMRN), Supply Department (SD).

From January 4, 1988 to April 2, 1990 posted to the Naval Barracks The Hague (NBTH) and there assigned to the Supply Department (SD) of the Directorate of Materiel Royal Netherlands Navy (DMRN), in charge of the position of clerk of the General Supply Affairs office. There in the beginning I was engaged in rewriting the regulations in the domain of supplies. My immediate superior was the lieutenant at sea of administration second class oldest category (LTZA2OC) Jan van de Broeke. Our boss then was the captain at sea of administration (KTZA) E. Weber, his right hand man was the captain at sea of administration (KTZA) J. Honig.

However, I did not feel like a stranger there because I knew most of the employees in that department well because of my LOGSCHOOL period. I did a lot of business with this department back then.

Cap-Gemini (a software company) had been working for years on various automation projects within defense, including within the Materiel Directorate of the Royal Navy. These included the Stock Administration System (SAS) and the Logistics Technical Documentation (LOGDOC). In addition, an automated Stock Point Administration System (SPA) was built for the benefit of operational units, such as ships and Marine units.

That was a huge job. They were already working on that when I was still at the LOGSCHOOL and it took years. When it was almost completed, I and several other people in our department (who would later the staff of the SAS/LOGDOC systems management office) took a course at Cap-Gemini on Professional Training in Functional Systems Management SAS. Then I was project leader of the SAS/LOGDOC procedures project. Because the procedures for that entire automated system still had to be written. Normally that is done at the beginning of an automation project during the design phase. But here the "learned" gentlemen kept pushing it forward into the larger project. Finally, it was all completed and successfully put into operation.

From The Hague, I also supervised several LOGDOC courses given at the Royal Naval Institute (KIM) in Den Helder for the materiel logistics officers, civilian as well as military, working at the Materiel Directorate in Den Helder at various locations.

An incident happened to me there at one point when I was walking back to the station after a visit to KIM. It was summer and I was walking in my navy shirt on the bridge over the West Canal near South Street. I had seen a building shed there (because they were working on the road there) and I also heard shouting from that building shed, but paid no attention to it. People often shout at you when you are in uniform. Then I heard someone running out of the building shed toward me. I pretended I was bleeding from the nose and was then pelted with sand. I pretended I hadn't felt anything and just kept walking to the station. Once there, I asked the man in the train dining room (you still had those then) if my shirt on my back had become dirty. Fortunately that turned out not to be the case, the sand was of course bone dry. Once back home I immediately called the Military Police

in Den Helder and explained the incident. They would investigate and report back to me. They did. The very same day I received a call from them informing me that they had tracked down the contractor and employee involved was immediately fired.

I was formally transferred on April 2, 1990 to the Naval Supervision Department at the "De Schelde" Company in Flushing. But it was actually a paper transfer because I just stayed behind my own desk at the Supply Department where, in addition to the work duties I had to do for the M frigate project, I continued with supply regulations as usual. I just went on duty trips to Flushing every Wednesday. Eventually I had a number of people working there as staff under the direction of the very capable Sergeant Major Willem van Broekhoven.

I was also head of Naval Supervision Supply Departement at the Rotterdam Dry Dock Company (RDC) for a while then. But that was an expiring business because the submarines had already been built and transferred to the Navy.So the door was soon closed there.

Images and additional information

(Most images can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Reception somewhere at the Alexander Barracks in The Hague for the Supply Department. I (with beard) am standing there talking to Erik Drees, one of the descendants of the Willem Drees. The lady on the right is Annemieke Nederhand with whom I still have regular contact. She was one of the first female warehouse managers. I knew her from the LOGSCHOOL.

On April 17, 1990, I was promoted to lieutenant at sea of professional services 2nd class oldest category.