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KONINKLIJK INSTITUUT |
K I M[Ben Oostdam's |
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My best mates and members of the "GPC"('Geschikte Pieven Club' or Club of the Right Type of Guys) were: Frans van Oudheusden, whom I still visit at his home in Burg-Haamstede; Henk Jaspers, who left the Navy to study law; and J.Ch.M. de Keyser, with his unbelievable memory allowing him to remember a page-full of such data as shown below; Jan was instrumental in setting up the excellent radar system for Europort. I also still keep in touch with our Indonesian fellow cadets, who became high flag-officers: Asmaning Tjipto Wignjoprajitno, a most gracious host and Subagjo Sangidi Reksodihardjo, a true officer and gentleman. I did attend one of the big reunions of our year, and am definitely looking forward to our 50th, in the year 2000 A.D. |
Our class-officer was the very sympathetic Lt.Veldkamp,
our navigation teacher the incomparable LtCdr. Gregory.
I enjoyed the Navigation classes as much as I abhorred courses
on Mines, Torpedoes and other weapons of mass-destruction.
Wonder why I joined the Navy?
(below): Some of my worked out class-notes on
spherical trigonometry and a four-star position calculation.
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That was all done using logarithms, and I am mighty proud of
my record time of 20 minutes for a fix I made in the Indian
Ocean in 1952. Amazingly, using a Geosatellite Positioning System (GPS) this can now be achieved by any dummy in a few minutes. I know because I used the instrument in my oceanography lab.classes; but do not try using it in Russia... |
![]() | That summer, we were promoted to corporal midshipmen, wow!
(left)this is my picture, notice the practiced cold stare The fall was hectic as usual, with as non-academic focus the extensive preparations for the ASSAUT, a 3 day feast a few days before Christmas. Since I did not have an official "fee" ("fairy", c.q girlfriend) I was assigned a busty daughter of a Rear-Admiral, and made a general nuisance of myself blowing my bugle during the trip across the Institute's lofts instead of availing myself. My single memorative is a bill for a corsage, while I also recall singing the stirring and passionate official "Adelborsten Lied" - Song of the Naval Cadets with some internal reservations. |