Next reunion - 27 April 2003 |
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Back Row Ian Mullins, Barry Seedsman, Bert Black, Tony Jackson, Barry Nicholls, Bugs Beasley, Charley Harrison, Bob Woods, Tom Playford.
Front Row Ian Symonds, Bill Reese, Brian Doulis, John Hughes, Wally Pearson, Mulga Kinder, Joe Marsh.
Ian says that his pay in those days was 3/- (30¢) per week, with 2/- (20¢) deferred.. He says No 2 Course started on the 7th July 1948 at RAAF Frognall and attended the Mel Tech College (now RMIT) until 1950 then spent 6 months at Ballarat learning RAAF equipment. In those days, radio and radar were quite separate trades and when first posted to 10 Gr Sqn Townsville, he used to spend time in both sections (H2S in Lincolns and TR 5048??), spending most of his time as airborne fixer and later as spare wireless operator. He says "We graduated as AC1’s Radio Mechanics (Air) and while at Frognell we were not permitted to drink, had smoking passes issued if studies were OK, were not allowed to have motorbikes, had to attend church dances (where the DI would grab you by the neck and lead you up to a girl to ask her to dance), had to attend cinema shows at Camberwell Theatre, and there was no leave from the base for the first year. Most blokes off the course were posted to either Malta or Japan (BCOF & Korea) in 1952/3. Below is a photo of our meteors of 77 Sqn at Kimpo, Korea, 1957.
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We knew you’d want to know too so we asked Ian where it was…....
Uranquinty is about 20Klm south of Wagga, on the Olympic Way, and was an RAAF base from WW2 days. I was on 26 Pilots course, and the Tiger Moth had just been phased out as a training aircraft, being replaced with the Winjeel which was a great abinitio trainer. When I started my course I was 25 yrs old, having been rejected for 5 years due to my apprenticeship contract, then I was relegated to a nav course until more pilots were wanted, and as a result I was dubbed "the old man." I went solo in 5.20 hours which is still pretty good. We then had x hours on the Wirraway before going to AFTS at Pt Cook, the course being whittled down from 31 to 11 blokes and where we finally graduated as Sgt pilots.
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| Ian also told us of Alec Young (above), also in our previous edition. Alec was on No 2 course with Ian until 1949, when he transferred to Point Cook cadets for pilot training where he successfully graduated into RAAF aircrew. Ian says he met Alec again about 1961, just before he was killed while leading a formation of four vampires (the RAAF aerobatic team) which were known as the "Red Sails". All four aircraft crashed just near East Sale in about 1962. |
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