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Reunion Questionnaire
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In the early 70’s, the unit stood on a rise on the old Wooloon Road about a mile from Amberley. It consisted of a number of air-transportable cabins and an inflatable radome balloon about 30 feet in diameter. The 'dome used to be painted that brown camouflage colour and was as hot as hell inside despite some attempts at air-conditioning which we were told was just for the equipment's comfort! The balloon was eventually painted white and took on the resemblance of a large golf ball. The equipment we used to monkey with was a curious mix of WW2 and 70's technology - valves alongside cmos. It was a great training radar for us baggy bums and the great pity was that those bloody operators always wanted to use it! But back to Sam.
Sam was a "singley" and lived on the base. At the time a girl in Brisbane had him securely by the short and curlies, thus depriving him of most of his spare time. It became common-place to see Sam dead on his feet with dark rings under his eyes due to the late nights and the long drives back to Amberley in the wee hours.
One day, Sam was a little bit worse from wear than usual. Seems the previous night he was driving back to base, worn out and dog tired as was the norm, and after passing through Ipswich he decided he just couldn’t go any further and it was time to pull over for a quick snooze. He stopped on the bend near the cemetery (Amberley blokes will know where that is), curled up in the front seat and nodded off. The next thing he remembers is hearing a loud noise and he’s sitting bolt upright clutching the steering wheel, instantly wide awake from a deep sleep. Looking straight ahead with eyes now like saucers, and a heart doing a million miles an hour, all he could see out front were tombstones in the glare of headlights. Terrified that he had gone to sleep and run off the road, he starts screaming and swings the wheel from side to side with his right foot jammed hard on the brake peddle, trying desperately to dodge the obstacles in front.
It’s only after a few minutes that he realises the noise and lights were from a truck coming up behind him while he was sleeping in the car-safely stopped on the side of the road.
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