Vol 67

Sept 2019

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Buying a new car?

If you’re a Radschool member and contemplating buying a new car, we could save you thousands. The Radschool Association has done a deal with Australia’s biggest car brokers whereby you can purchase a car (your choice of make, colour, specs etc) at fleet discount prices.

One of our blokes made use of this facility recently and bought a Toyota Rav4 and saved thousands. You can too!

To see further details, go to the Radschool Assoc home page (HERE) then click on “New Car Purchase”.

Discounts.

Current financial members can now receive a 12% discount on the base rate of the day when hiring a car from Thrifty. If you’re thinking of hiring a car or an SUV or a people mover, this could save you heaps. If you’re a member, send us an email HERE and we’ll send you the promo code.

Opinion.

Nearly 4 years ago, the Office of the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force began an inquiry into possible war crimes in Afghanistan. Today that longest and most secretive inquiry undertaken by the Defence Force appears no closer to finishing its work. For a country curious to know whether its special forces are shot through with war criminals, this delay is troubling. For those soldiers caught in the teeth of the investigation, the glacial pace has been devastating.

One of those soldiers is Ben Roberts-Smith, a most decorated war veteran and so far the only individual to be named publicly in connection to the tangle of inquiries probing the conduct of Australian forces in Afghanistan.

Last Sunday (29^th Sept) the Nine Network’s 60 Minutes took the allegations against Roberts-Smith a notch further, naming the Victoria Cross recipient as being party to the battlefield execution of an Afghan villager in Darwan, Afghanistan, on the 11^th September, 2012.

Ben Roberts-Smith has DENIED these allegations of course, but he's up against the might of the Press which can sway public opinion one way or the other. Why they (the Press) chose to air these allegations before the inquiry has finished its deliberations is beyond us, it can only be for profit, report some fantastic, as yet unproven, piece of information, and hundreds of people will want to read it and they (the Press) will sell more papers.  The ABC's Media Watch got involved too, see HERE.

Freedom of the Press?  What a bloody joke!  These people seem to think they are above us mere mortals, they think they have a God given right to report anything in the interests of "the right to know". Like any business, the Press is a profit making business (apart from the ABC which is political wing) and its (the Press) number one aim is to make a profit - no matter what!   We think they should be subject to the same rules as any other business. Why shouldn't the Police be able to search their homes or offices, under warrant, if there is a suspicion of wrong doing, you try it and see what happens.

The Age have thumped their chests and reported why they are such great people and have reported these allegations, you can see that HERE but where is the public support for Roberts-Smith.  Years ago the RSL would have leapt to his defence with a vengeance.  If Bruce Ruxton was still alive and head of the RSL, things would be much different.

Sadly not any more, the RSL is fast becoming a paper tiger.

The Courts will ultimately determine this, Roberts-Smith has commenced legal action against the publishers of the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Canberra Times and 3 journalists. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

DVA Brisbane

In January this year DVA Queensland’s State Office in Brisbane moved from its previous address at 259 Queen Street, to 480 Queen Street, Brisbane.

Although the new address is 480 Queens St, it’s a bit confusing as you enter the building from Adelaide St, The easiest way to get there is come by train, get out at Central, cross Anzac Square to Adelaide St, turn left, walk towards the Story Bridge end of Adelaide St, then once you cross Wharf St it’s on your right hand side.

The new offices of DVA are on the 6^th floor. All the existing contact telephone and fax numbers will stay the same.

Veterans and their families visiting the new office will find better amenities in a more modern building at 480 Queen Street. There are cafes and restaurants on site. The mailing address remains the same: GPO Box 9998, Brisbane, Queensland 4001. All mail for the department should be sent to this address, irrespective of the state in which the intended recipient is based.

DVA’s general inquiries telephone number is 1800 555 254. The fax number for the Queensland State Office is (07) 3223 8304.

Membership.

We’ve decided to go with the following membership.

·                Full membership for $35.00 to 30 June 2021.

There’s no more annual Membership, only full Membership which will expire on the 30 June 2021.  As we’ve said, full membership is not compulsory, you can still receive the RAM which will remain open, free and available on the net.

So, if you’d like to contribute and help us with the ever increasing costs, please join as a full member.

If you are already a member (ie: if your name is on this LIST), please fill in the form below and send it to us, if you haven’t already joined (if you're not on the list), please use the form HERE.

BSB: 124-021       Account number: 1048 7401      Title:  RAAF Radschool Association.

Bank:  Bank of Queensland.

and include your name in the "Remarks" window on the deposit.

You can of course pay more if you wish!!

AND!!  If you work for or know of a firm that would be kind and generous enough to sponsor the Radschool Association, please get in touch.

Reunions.

If you're having a reunion and you would like us to cover it and publish it, let us know and we'll see what can be done.

Errors

Our aim is to have this site error free – but that’s probably impossible. But with your help I reckon we can get pretty close. If you see any errors, be they punctuation, spelling, links that don’t work, facts wrong etc, (no matter how small) please let us know so we can fix them.

Thankfully, Ken Morris, who lives over in the West, proof reads our print before it goes public and points out our many errors, Thanks Ken.

You can download the full magazine in PDF format HERE.

It is a very large file, contains 261 pages and will take a while to download.

The margins have been set so you can print on both sides of the page.

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