AN Okehampton man has been commended by the Vice Chief of Defence Staff, the Secretary of State for Defence, and the Second Permanent Under Secretary for his work as part of the ?Defence Spectrum Team? at the ministry of Defence. Peter Skrzypczak was born and grew up in Okehampton. He attended the town?s primary and secondary modern schools ? his wife comes from Germansweek. At sixteen, he left school and joined the navy as a junior seaman, second class ? the lowest possible rank. ?I would never have guessed then that I would have ended up as anything special,? he said. Yet 36 years later, he left the navy as a lieutenant commander, and then joined the ministry of defence. A statement issued by the ministry praised Mr Skrzypczak for having shown resilience and good humour while working on treasury directives in a team ?at half strength?; for having had to deal with areas in which he had ?no inherent expertise?; and for having moved from ?routine work? to ?extremely high profile? projects ?requiring a very innovative approach whilst navigating largely uncharted waters.?
