Radschool Association Inc Magazine

G'day Trev, I have been reading your brilliant magazine for some 7 years and have constantly been on the lookout for a photo of my old RadTech course 8RMT. It dawned on me, in this centenary year of the RAAF, that perhaps I should search for the related RadMech course 64RMC. Click, in an instant, there was 18 yr old Steve Lane looking straight back (in a sense) at a 74 yr old version of himself. It was quite overwhelming! All the stories and excitement of my time in the RAAF came flooding back and I hope to eventually, share some of these stories (and photographs) with you. (Click the pic for names)

In this 100th year of the RAAF, I have to say that I owe the Air Force everything, and my subsequent stories will bear this out. Before this particular year has ended, I am determined to write this up in email form and get it away to you. Included is a link https://youtu.be/46gdz1Qelzo to a little snippet of video that I managed to capture at Farnborough Air Show in 2004. I'm including it because I hope that it provides some relief for many of us who might be suffering air show withdrawal symptoms.

I am also happy to help you with some of the names associated with the 64RMC photo.To my left is JOHN ROEBIG, to his left (I'm quite sure) is TERRY BARLOW. In the front row, and the one that stands out for me, is ROGER TOOTH, Roger was just a damned nice bloke. He invited me to his parent's house one weekend and they were just lovely people. On the Sunday morning just after breakfast, 'Wild Thing' by The Troggs was playing on the kitchen radio. I distinctly remember Roger's 16 yr old sister looking straight at me and saying 'You like that song, don't you?' Roger and I transferred eventually to 8RMT, albeit via different routes. He also topped the course as I remember, achieving the highest aggregate mark. I hope this email gets through to you. They were very special times in the RAAF. I would like to wish you and your team a very happy Christmas and a very merry and safe New Year. Cheers Steve Lane

And

Just a quick follow-up on my last email (21 Dec 2021). the sports car in the ASCO canteen photo (next to the 1800) (vol 47, p.5) might well be Pat Walsh's Mk 1 MGB, Your vol 73 provided some familiar reference points. I joined the RAAF in Sept '65, one month after Col Price (p.5). I also lived on the Gold Coast for some 24 yrs, and still think of 'the Coast' as home. Like Ted McEvoy, I arrived in Australia aboard the New Australia, albeit in 1956. Tragically, my parents divorced a year later, and after 7 years in Catholic boarding schools (which I would not wish on anyone) and a small stint at G.J. Coles as a trainee executive, I joined the Royal Australian Air Force and never looked back. As I said in my last email, I owe the RAAF everything! In addition to all the theory and practice associated with becoming a Radio Technician (not to mention food, clothing, housing, medical and pay), we were also given the opportunity to study other interests, in my case music and, at night school, the NSW HSC, in the hope that I might gain entrance to university.

Vol 74, p.5 provided some interesting reading on the RAAF motto: Per Ardua ad Astra. For me, 'per ardua' has always translated as 'through work'. Perhaps I might elaborate on this view in another email. However, what might be of greater interest, is the phrase 'ad astra', translated generally as 'to the stars'. What interpretation does one place on this phrase? I have my own view, but perhaps you might like to put it to your readers (or perhaps the wider Air Force 'authority') as to how they feel about these few words.

Speaking of stars, space and things celestial, I was delighted to read an ABC report on retired Air Vice Marshall Mark Skidmore who is the executive chairman of a company by the name of Skykraft. Essentially, as I understand it, this company is building (in Australia) a fleet of satellites that will be launched by SpaceX this year. This network of satellites, once established in orbit, will provide real-time tracking of any aircraft anywhere in the world. What a profound and positive influence this system will have on global air safety, and it's all being built right here in Australia. Good on you Skykraft. Good on you Australia. Good on you Gilmour Space Technologies, another Australian (Gold Coast) company looking to the stars.

I do tend to get a little 'carried away' with this notion of 'ad astra'. The RAAF is entirely responsible for this mind set, and I am happy for it to be so. Cheers for 2022. Steve Lane

P.S Just thought I'd throw this one in (for the mathematicians).

Prison is better than Nothing, and

Nothing is better than Freedom, therefore

Prison is better than Freedom.

My dad used to tell me one much the same:

A Model T Ford is better than no car

No car is better than a Rolls Royce

Therefore a Model T is better than a Roller. tb

There’s a message here somewhere.

Ted Mac sent us this.

A Japanese company (Toyota) and an American company (Ford) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile. The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat.

A management team made up of top senior advisers was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing. Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing. Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents, and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager. They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners, and free pens for the rower.

There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes, and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses. The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and cancelled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US, claiming they can't make money paying American wages. TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US. The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

The Bicycle is killing our planet.

The bicycle is causing the slow death of the planet!!

The General Director of Euro Exim Bank Ltd. got economists thinking when he said: “A cyclist is a disaster for the country's economy: he does not buy cars and does not borrow money to buy. He does not pay for insurance policies. He does not buy fuel, does not pay for the necessary maintenance and repairs. He does not use paid parking. He does not cause serious accidents. He does not require multi-lane highways. He does not get fat. Healthy people are neither needed nor useful for the economy. They don't buy medicine. They do not go to hospitals or doctors. Nothing is added to the country's GDP. On the contrary, every new McDonald's restaurant creates at least 30 jobs: 10 cardiologists, 10 dentists, 10 dietary experts and nutritionists, and obviously, people who work at the restaurant itself."

Choose carefully: cyclist or McDonald's? It is worth considering. Walking is even worse. Pedestrians don't even buy bicycles.

Our ABC?

A group of Aussie veterans are demanding an apology from the ABC over a claim Australian soldiers killed an Afghan prisoner. A letter has been sent to the national broadcaster on behalf of ‘November Platoon’ from the 2nd Commando Regiment in response to an article published by the ABC back in October 2020.

You can read the letter in full HERE

The article was based on an account from an unnamed US Marine who alleged November Platoon executed a prisoner in Afghanistan in 2012, but the members of November Platoon say “this is an appalling and preposterous lie” and are demanding a written apology, a published correction and an independent review of the story.

Retired Special Forces Officer and former November Platoon Commander Heston Russell told Ben Fordham the ABC needs to do the right thing. “This absolutely never happened. Our platoon, the only thing you can search about them on the internet is this story that defames us and calls us war criminals.

There has been absolute negligence here and unethical conduct.”

The ABC’s Media Watch program did a feature on the story (see HERE) and Heston Russell has also released a video on the subject, you can see it HERE.

Opinion

There seems to be more to this story than is being told at the moment. Whether or not you’re a fan of the ABC I don’t think they deliberately fabricate stories, especially ones of this magnitude. There are a lot of fair minded people at the ABC and I’m sure if they realised they had erred on a story with the resulting consequences there would already be an apology made to Army. Defence hates adverse publicity with a passion, yet they don’t seem to have stepped in to publicly back their troops, nor has the Gov’t. Why? I was always told “Where’s there’s smoke there’s fire”.

I think perhaps this story still has legs.

The Myth of the decline of Russia.

Mike Gahan sent us THIS. An interesting read.

Ozzie Barbecues explained.

Those new to our shores might be a little unsure how to plan and hold a barbecue here in Oz-Land. Luckily a few people have got together and made an explanatory video on how to do it. It’s HERE.

WOKE – what’s it all about?

No matter where you live, or how you live, today your life is being influenced by the WOKE movement or the Cancel Culture mob or by some other flavour of the month radical movement. WOKERS see themselves as saviours of society – they are the ones (and only ones) who champion political correctness and keep watch on police brutality and unjust race existences. Cancel Culture followers see themselves as being the “righters of past wrongs” – no matter how long ago that wrong occurred. Both these movements stifle free speech. Once upon a time you could tell an Irish joke or a blond joke and everyone would laugh, including the Irish and the blonds, now if you dare to so do, you’re immediately branded a racist or a bigot or a homophile.

We’ve all gone mad.

If you don't comply with these idiotic movement's ideals you are loudly and publicly lambasted. People are scared. Even the military. Once upon a time the Army, which is an organisation funded by the Government whose sole purpose is to kill people before those people kill us, used to have unit motifs like death heads and other "arrogant" death symbols. They weren't official, but were invented by the men and women who had to do the killing. It was their group identifier, like the Tiger is for Richmond FC. If you've got a job to do, whether it be killing an enemy or winning a football game, your group has to unify with a purpose. Their symbols helped do that! - But not any more - those at the top would rather the Army wore pink and sang Kumbaya. (See HERE).

The sex thing is another movement that has run amuck. Once upon a time there were men and there were women, men had short hair and were referred to as a he, women had long hair and were referred to as her. Not anymore, today there’s no difference, we’re all theys. A man can assume he’s a woman, bung on a dress and use the women’s toilets. A man can become a woman then compete unfairly in women’s sport. Since time began there have been both men and women who have tended differently to the majority, that’s just the way it happens, no-one’s fault, no-one to blame, just a nature thing, and over the years a small minority of these people have been unfairly treated by some – but not all and not by everyone! Most of these people just went about their lives, didn’t feel the need to shout their tendencies from the tree-tops and were happy. Today the alphabetical gay movement insists on public displays which we feel is doing the movement more harm than good.

I’m going to start a movement, its aim will be to ban movements.

Writer and comedian Andrew Doyle, the man behind the Jonathan Pie and Titania McGrath characters, gives his take on the WOKE movement of today. Doyle takes apart modern comedy and the woke movement who seek to censor and prevent freedom of speech. It runs for an hour but is worth watching. You can see it HERE.

Covid Needle

There are a lot of people out there who still insist they know for an absolute fact that the Covid vaccine is just a huge money grab by multi-national drug companies. They know for a fact that the vaccine doesn’t work, can’t possibly work as it hasn’t undergone testing and that we’re all being duped into believing that it does.

These people are far more knowledgeable than all the eminent scientists who have studied this stuff for years and even though it has been unquestionably proven that the vaccine has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, they tell us not to get it under any circumstances as it is akin to injecting poison into our bodies.

They could be dead right!

HERE’s an interesting little video on the non-believers.

Vaccine Warning

This happened recently and is important information for our age group - those of us over 60. A friend had his 3rd dose of the vaccine - the “booster” - at a Pharmacy, after which he began to have blurred vision on the way home. When he did get home, he immediately called the pharmacy for advice about seeing a doctor, or to be hospitalised.

He was told NOT to go to a doctor or a hospital, but to immediately return to the pharmacy and pick up his glasses.

DFRDB Update – December 2021

Senate FADT Committee’s Inquiry

The Government has now posted its response to the Senate FADT Committee’s report. It may be viewed by clicking on Government Response. We had no expectation of anything of significance in the response, and that has proved to be the case.

The matter of ‘the accuracy of information provided to DFRDB members’ has now been laid to rest but that was always a smoke-screen which has had nothing to do with the matters we have been advocating since ADFRA’s formation, therefore, we have asked the Minister to refrain from quoting or para-phrasing the Government Response, when he eventually responds to our correspondence.

If you write to your MP or Senators about the matters we have been advocating, we suggest that you make a similar request.

Support from RSL National

The RSL National Board has agreed to support ADFRA’s position on the DFRDB Scheme, through the Ex-Service Organization Round Table (ESORT) forum, however, as ESORT is not the appropriate forum to advocate DFRDB Issues, we have asked RSL National to pose the question to the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs:

“Is it possible to establish a forum, similar to ESORT, which can deal with Military Superannuation issues?”

Dispute of our Position on Commutation

Some individuals are still disputing our assertion that the Commutation provisions incorporated in the DFRDB Act are not consistent with the recommendations of the Jess Committee. Recently, we received these Comments, some of which have also appeared on Social Media. We addressed those comments in this Response.

Effect of Commutation and Indexation

The effect of Commutation and Indexation, on the entitlements provided by the DFRDB Act, is still not well understood. After a request from a lobbyist who intends to take the matter to the Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, we provided, in The Defined Benefit Provisions of the DFRDB Act, examples of how the interaction of Commutation and Indexation affects the entitlements provided by the DFRDB Act.

Those examples show that if members live to the age of 92, the total reduction of their retirement pay, after commutation, will typically be more than four times the amount they commuted.

Commissioner of Taxation v. Douglas (the Douglas Decision)

Members who have received amended Assessments from the Australian Taxation Office for increased tax liabilities as a result of the Douglas Decision, should take note of last month's Media Release, which advises that the Government has taken action to ensure no veteran will be made worse off due to that decision.

Jim Hislop OAM

President

Cancel the flag folding ceremony – restore 2 Sqn SASR

A flag-folding ceremony due to take place last September 2021 at the home of the Special Air Service Regiment in Perth was postponed as the event was deemed ‘insensitive’. The flag of 2 Squadron SASR was to be folded and presented to the Regiment’s Historical Foundation, formally marking the squadron’s removal from the Army’s Order of Battle.

Extinguishing the squadron was ordered in November 2020 by Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Rick Burr, AO, DSC, MVO. He determined that 2SQN, which was raised in 1964 and whose members have served with honour and distinction since its inception, would cease to exist. Group punishment would prevail.

The ceremony was to be conducted in the shadow of the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban and the return of its people to the dictates of religious zealotry. The Taliban have moved quickly and remorselessly. They have claimed a massive and unpredicted win over the “coalition of the willing” that fought them for 20 years. Ironically, members of 2SQN are reported to have been back in Afghanistan last week assisting with the desperate and dangerous evacuation from Kabul.

General Burr found that:

"Although the incidents outlined in the (Brereton) Inquiry occurred across the Regiment, the report has made it clear that there was a nexus of alleged serious criminal activities, in 2 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment at a point in time. This alleged grave misconduct has severely damaged our professional standing. This action reflects no judgement on the current members of 2 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment, but we all must accept the wrongdoings of the past.”

Noble words and high moral purpose from the leadership. Yet inescapably, we are left with the group punishment of a proud squadron of almost sixty years, served by some of the nation’s finest soldiers. Group punishment is always an unsatisfactory solution, punishing the innocent and guilty alike. In the case of 2SQN the unfairness of the punishment is compounded by the targeting of the operators and previous generations of veterans, with senior commanders untouched.

Almost a year since the order to remove 2SQN SASR from the ORBAT, the charges against SAS members have evaporated. Thirteen SAS members who were reportedly harangued and intimidated by the Inquiry after being handed show cause notices – whose lives and reputations have suffered irreparable damage – have now had their charges dropped through lack of evidence.

That’s military life. It is often said that ’if you can’t take a joke you shouldn’t have joined’. But the humour has long gone from this debacle. The Army is not a democracy, nor can it be. But there must be trust upwards and downwards between commanders and subordinates. That trust is now being sorely tested. How can our soldiers or indeed our nation trust commanders who determine guilt long before the legal process has run its course? Where was their personal responsibility and accountability when alleged war crimes were committed by subordinates? Where is the apology rather than a flag-folding ceremony?

Last week’s flag-folding ceremony would have been a symbolic sham: an act of ritualised hypocrisy, emboldening our enemies, who already see the West as weak and divided. It would have run a dagger through the hearts of all who have served with pride and sacrifice in 2 Squadron SASR. Surely we can do better than this. Let justice run its course. Cancel the ceremony, punish any who are found guilty. Restore 2SQN SASR to the ORBAT.

Audie Moldre

2SQN SASR

South Vietnam 1968

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