33rd MCDOA Operational Updates and Annual Dinner
29 Nov 2025 - This year’s annual updates and dinner were as successful as ever. The newer format where proceedings begin with lunch followed by the updates, rather than having a morning start to accommodate the AGM which is now held online earlier in the year, seems to have proved much more popular.
Our day started with some early arrivals gathering in the Officers, Warrant Officers & Senior Rates Mess on Horsea Island. Unfortunately, there was a glitch over the lunch arrangements but Alex ‘Snowy’ Snow, our Secretary, saved the day by obtaining sandwiches and snacks which we devoured with gusto, together with coffee and tea.
We then wended our way to the Reclaim Conference Room in Bridge Building for the afternoon’s Operational Updates.
After a welcoming address by MCDOA President Capt Ben Vickery RN, Head of the Military Diving Capability Cell, we settled down to ingest and absorb one of the most comprehensive, professional and informatory set of briefs I have witnessed. MCDOA Secretary Lt (soon to be Lt Cdr) Alex ‘Snowy’ Snow, OIC of DTXG Alpha Diving Unit 2, spoke on behalf of Cdr Rory Armstrong, CO DTXG, who had been called away on an urgent matter. Other speakers were: Cdr Dan Herridge, Commander MTXG; Cdr Rich Hurman, Commander |Second MCM Squadron; Cdr Sean ‘Central’ Heaton MBE, SO1 SpecOps Maritime; and MCDOA Chair Cdr Martin Mackey, Superintendent of Defence Diving.
We owe a debt of gratitude to all the speakers for giving up their valuable time, as well as Alex ‘Snowy’ Snow, our Secretary, for organising such a high-powere series of briefs.
Later in the day, 89 members and their guests assembled in the wardroom at HMS EXCELLENT for the annual dinner, organised by Kev Giles, our Social Secretary. We were met with kick-starting glasses of fizz kindly sponsored by SMP (Submarine Manufacturing and Products Ltd).
Our Guest of Honour was MCDOA past-President Cdre Roger Readwin whom we were also dining out of the Royal Navy.
we were also dining out RN leavers Cdre Si Kelly and Capt Al Nekrews OBE QGM. Like Roger Readwin, Si Kelly was present on the night but Al was unable to attend.
As usual, the evening started off in the bar.
We then moved into the dining room where, as customary, the members of HMS NELSON’s Volunteer Band, led by LCpl Chris Palucsis RM accompanied our entry with their usual panache. The food, cooked by Head Chef Tony Hole and his team, was delicious and the service, under the direction of Maître d’ Sally Hurley, was faultless. The company, of course, was perfect and the atmosphere couldn't have been more convivial.
After the port, kindly sponsored by JFD (an amalgamation of James Fisher Defence and DIVEX), and the loyal toast, the singing started at its raucous best. As usual, the band members entered into the spirit of the occasion and fully enjoyed themselves, particularly during our rendition of ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’; they even brought a bubble machine with them They always tell me our dinner is their favourite function of the year.
Capt Ben Vickery RN, our President then welcomed our honourable guest and presented bespoke bottles of port to our members leaving the Service. The toast ‘Absent Friends’ was also made in memory of those members who have crossed the bar since we last met: 100-year old Sub Lt Boyd Salmon RNVR, Lt Cdr Stephen ‘Steamy’ Window RN/RNR and Lt Cdr Alan Bayliss RN. We also toasted the memory of the late CPO(D) Joe Maher who crossed the bar only recently.
We then heard some words of wisdom from Cdre Readwin, our Guest of Honour and service leaver, who regaled us with a few tales of his time in Washington as our Naval Attaché.
It was then back to the bar for a few nightcaps before ‘carriages’.
Thanks once again to MCDOA Social Secretary Kev Giles for putting so much into the organisation of this fabulous event. See you all again next year.
As published in this morning’s Telegraph:
