Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 36

Page 20

Privacy Policy  |  Editorial Policy  |  Join the Association  |  List of Members  |  Contact us  |  Index  |  Links  |  Print this page

Cloth Patches.

Lukus Productions from Warburton in Victoria, very generously sent us a RAAF School of Radio cloth patch. (Click the patch at right for a better view.) They are of excellent quality and are available for only $14 each.

They have patches for many RAAF squadrons, wings, sections, hospitals, depots, units, musterings and training schools (click HERE for a look at some of the other available patches) as well as metal badges, T-shirts, caps, key rings, tie bars, cuff links, name badges, prints and of course, stubby holders. All items are of excellent quality.

If you’re ex Army or Navy – don’t feel left out, there are patches there for you too.

A full list of their available products can be seen on their web site www.lukus.com.au. If you wish to purchase anything, all ordering is done through the site.

You can get further information by ringing them on 03 5967 3537

Air Force Cadets.

Dave Dunlop, who is the Chairman of the Australian Air Force Cadets National Council INC, would like to remind us:-

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the Air Force Cadets in Australia and there will be a number of special events to celebrate the occasion later in the year. If you were a cadet or staff member of the ATC/AIRTC/AAFC or had some other connection with the organisation, this news may cause you to reflect on the experience, and if so, hopefully you will recall enjoyable and rewarding memories.

With direction and support from the Air Force Cadet National Council, a Working Group of former air cadets is developing a proposal to form an Australian Air Cadets Alumni that could be launched as part of the 70th Anniversary celebrations. To this end, the first step is to gauge the level of interest in forming the Alumni from former air cadets, staff and others around Australia.

The attached flyer has more details about the proposed Alumni and I ask that you consider the information, and if interested, visit the website address shown on the flyer which is https://sites.google.com/site/alumniofaircadets70/. The website provides more information about the proposed Alumni and you can register your interest in being a part of it. By providing your contact details, you will be advised on important developments.

The website will also keep you updated on AAFC 70th Anniversary events.

It is important that we reach as many former air cadets, staff members and others with a legitimate connection to the organisation as possible, in this early stage. If you are in contact with anyone who has been a member, or who has contributed in some way to the ATC/AIRTC/AAFC, please forward this notice to them, even if it isn't relevant to you or you are not interested in learning more about the Alumni at this time.

Carnival Australia.

Steve Hartigan advises that he has received notice from Carnival Australia, which incorporates P&O Cruises Australia, Princess Cruises and Cunard and that they are giving serving and ex-service personnel a $250 onboard credit when taking a cruise on any of their vessels.

To obtain the credit, you need to send a copy of proof of your service (Discharge Certificate, Certificate of Service), when making your booking. Send it to:

You will then receive confirmation of the credit. Carry this with your Cruise paperwork when boarding. If you have already booked a future cruise, but had not applied for the credit, then as well as your copy of proof of service, you need to send your cruise details (Cruise number, departure date, etc.).

Happy sailing….

Symbol.

Does anyone know what this symbol means??  It is usually found on a transformer rectifier, beside the output DC voltage figure.

Another wannabe??

There is a lot of correspondence on the net about a certain Barry Billing. Seems Barry has been telling anyone who cared to listen that he had two very colourful tours of Vietnam. He claims all sorts of wonderful exploits with the Viet Cong and has convinced a lot of people that he had actually been involved in combat. Unfortunately, it’s not true. He did do two tours of Vietnam alright, but in the Signals mustering. In tour number 1 (Apr 1967-Mar 1968) he was the OC’s driver/communicator and in tour number 2 (Apr 1970-May 1971) he worked in a Mess in Vung Tau, pulling beers.

For some reason known only to himself, he has been corresponding on the Australian Veteran Matters webside, under the pseudonyms “CICERO” and/or “CERTO”, slandering fellow veterans and destroying reputations for no other reason than spite and jealousy.

Billing is now facing 38 fraud charges. He has been accused of defrauding nearly $75,000 from the federal government and the Vietnam Vets Association. He was charged with making and using a false instrument following an investigation by Northern Beaches (NSW) police into a series of fraud offences occurring between December 2007 and November 2009. Police allege Mr Billing used false cheques and invoices to claim a number of payments from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, through the veterans’ association, in individual amounts of between $111 and $2,556.

He was due to appear in Manly Court, but his solicitor, Mark Bostock, said his client was unwell and unable to attend. Bostock told the court he had recently received a doctor’s report for Billing ahead of a potential and likely application to have the charges dealt with under section 32 of the Mental Health Act. The matter was adjourned to the 8^th September.

Your docs and privacy.

The following has been received from Phillip (Curly) Ware and is of interest to all who served:

Some time ago (12 years in fact) my son arrived at my house, with my complete service records, obtained from the National Archives of Australia. In this set of documents was everything anyone had ever written about me.  The reason my son asked for the docs was to put together a resume for a speech about my Service History for my 60th birthday party ... he said that as he began to read the docs  he realised that these docs were very personal, and so decided not to continue, and brought them around to me.

In these docs was every assessment, application, comment, recommendation or otherwise that had been written about me from AC Recruit Minor (Trainee Teleg) to Flt Lt Air Electronics Officer when I left the RAAF in 1968.

Some things written are hurtful now and also could certainly leave an assessor open to libel as well. So in these cases, everyone loses, whilst the Government postulates defending its stance to the detriment of both the member and those involved in the members' supervision.

What was written about me surely should be between the assessor, his superiors and myself ... and not for general distribution to the wider Australian Community ... it would not surprise me to find information about people posted on Facebook or Twitter by anyone who wants to harm the person whose docs were released, wrongly in my view.

Fortunately, I did nothing wrong, immoral or dishonest ... but there is no doubt for many, the release of these docs to spouses, family, employer's etc could be their undoing. Potential employers could access an ex-military person's docs from the National Archives, to the detriment of the ex-member.

This to me is just another example of how successive governments hold in utter contempt, those who risk their lives in the country's defence, and will stop at nothing to justify their own flawed reasoning on this issue whilst those who served continue to suffer.

If someone wishes to access another's service docs, all that person has to do is pay the small fee, and everything will be forwarded. If the Victim here finds out that someone has accessed his/her service records, the government will not divulge the details of the person who has been given the docs, under "privacy laws". Mostly, there is no way the Ex Service person will ever know that his/her docs have been obtained by someone else.

So the person out to cause grief to the Ex Serviceman/woman is protected, whilst those who served become the Victims.

As I see our young people heading off overseas to battle, and a grandstanding politician, saying "Australia is Proud of you young people today", I am sickened knowing that everything they do will be released to anyone, including those intending to harm them in later life.

The whole thing is a National Disgrace!.

Click HERE to see the Defence Welfare Association’s letter on Privacy.

Jim Angel.

Jim Angel was the voice of Sydney news for almost half a century. Angel, who died on Christmas Eve, 2007, retired from radio in 2001 after a 44-year career with stations 2UE, 2SM, 2GB and 2CH but the style he brought to the news can still be heard today. Anyone who lived in or around Sydney in the 60’s and 70’s and listened to the radio will remember Jim Angel. “For him every news bulletin was opening night,” said 2GB announcer Jason Morrison. “He was the most unlikely star at the station. He never really understood how many people were aware of who he was and what he did.

“He set the standard of the way news was presented in Sydney. There’s a whole generation of blokes my age who aspired to be as good at the craft as he was. You can hear traces of Jim Angel in newsreaders of my generation.”

The “little man with the big voice” received numerous tributes following his death of a massive stroke at his home in the Southern Highlands, aged only 67. “There was no finer example of theatre of the mind of radio,” said 2UE’s program director, Greg Byrnes. The Premier at the time, Morris Iemma, said an entire generation of people had woken up to Angel telling them what was happening of a morning. “Jim Angel was a radio icon.”

Click HERE to hear Jim and John Laws on 2UE

REOA.

The REOA has arranged a family day visit to the Shrine of Remembrance in St. Kilda Road Melbourne for Sunday 25 September 2011. A conducted tour by the Shrine volunteers has been arranged and is basically free but obviously any donations to the Shrine are always welcome. The Shrine of Remembrance is well worth a visit if you have not been there before and is highly suitable for children and teenagers with plenty to look at through the Shrine complex. Given its central location, it can be accessed via public transport on St. Kilda Road or there is plenty of car parking available all around the Shrine in the public parking spaces.

The family day visit is highly recommended and the guided tour is most informative.

The tour will commence at 1100 hours and take about 1 hour. We have also arranged for a mixed hot/cold finger food and sandwiches with cakes and tea/coffee and soft drinks served by Mighty Good Catering inside the Visitors Centre in the Shrine itself so no problem dealing with inclement weather.

Costing will be $15 per head for an adult which is anyone over 12 years of age, $10 for kids aged between 12 and 2 and under 2 years is free. No alcohol allowed in the Shrine.

If you wish to go, please respond by Friday 16 September, including numbers and names of attendees in your party and deposit the applicable monies to the REOA account details below, remembering to include your surname in the banking details so we can track your payment.

Bank details: BSB 733-112, Account No: 563228, Account name: Richard Orr T/A REOA.

Telephone: (03) 9511 7775

Hijack

One of the RAAF’s Caribou aircraft, A4-140, was making news back on the 4th September in 1975.

When civil war erupted in Portuguese (East) Timor in August 1975, a DHC-4 Caribou (A4-140) was sent from No 38 Squadron at Richmond to fly Red Cross personnel and supplies from Darwin. The aircraft subsequently shuttled refugees from Bacau back to Darwin until the Australia Government halted the practice. On the 4th September, A4-140 was delivering supplies to Bacau when troops of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) panicked on hearing the evacuation flights had been stopped, and took over the aircraft. The crew was forced at gunpoint to take off with 54 people crammed on board the Caribou, instead of the maximum of 28 it was designed to carry. The aircraft wallowed towards Darwin at just 90 knots at an altitude of 1,500 feet (457 metres), and when it landed had just 10 minutes fuel remaining. The soldiers surrendered peacefully, but A4-140 had become the first (and we hope the only) RAAF aircraft ever hijacked.

A4-140 is a bit like G for George, the famous Lancaster on display at the AWM inCanberra, in that it has been almost everywhere and done almost everything – and survived. A4-140 was one of the first three Caribou aircraft delivered to the RAAF back in March 1964. The other two aircraft were A4-134 and A4-147, both of which are no longer with us. A4-134 crashed at Nowra in July 1964 and A4-147 crashed at Tapini in PNG in October 1968.

(Click HERE to see what it’s like landing at Tapini – in this case the aircraft is powerful and light and the weather is fine and beaut – you want to try it in a fully loaded 206 when the weather is RS….)

A4-140 was sent from Richmond to Vietnam in 1968 and stayed there until 1971. It returned to 38 Sqn at Richmond and was used in all sorts of tasks. When the Caribous were finally retired in 2009, A4-140 was still flying.

On Friday, the 27^th November, 2009, A4-140 landed at Canberra after having completed its last flight and 45 years service. It was flown down by the CO of 38 Sqn, Wng Cdr Tony Thorpe, who acknowledged that he was older than the aircraft, but not by much. It now belongs to the AWM who will eventually put the aircraft on display.

Uh Oh, lock up your daughters !!!

Wreath laying ceremony.

The Sunshine Coast Sub-Branch of the Vietnam Vets Association, is holding a Wreath Laying Ceremony at the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra Airport on the 3^rd November 2011, at the ‘being restored’ Caribou A4-173 of RTFV/35Sqn. The service will start at 10:15 am. The VVAASC invites all ex-service persons to participate in the ceremony which will remember all RAAF personnel who served in units and Squadrons involved in the Vietnam War and other theatres of war as well as Peacekeeping and Peacemaking. Padre Fry will lead the service in prayer and following the Ceremony the Queensland Air Museum will provide a morning tea.

We hope that you are able to participate and if so, could you please RSVP Mal Sayers at this address karnak661@gmail.com by the 20^th October 2011.

Back     Go to page:  1  2  3   4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19      Back to start