Next reunion - 27 April 2003 |
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| 41 RTC at their course break-up party at the Altona Central Hotel |
Frank Alley
We recently heard from Frank Alley, who many will remember as "Sir" at Radschool back in 1965/66/67. Frank, circled below, was an instructor at Laverton for 3 years before he "remustered’ to engineering branch at ARDU. Blokes on 41RTC will fondly remember Frank as the dedicated instructor who spent 1 month in that stinking-hot little "Kingstrand" hut explaining the ins and outs of that electronic marvel, the APS31 radar. Only trouble was, the RAAF had recently mothballed the old 11 Sqn Neppies, and along with them the APS31, so no-one actually got to work on one, but at least at Radschool there were tons of bits for the blokes to play with.Frank finished his time in the RAAF at ARDU as a radio officer, playing around with and flight testing all sorts of toys, sometimes pretty hairy stuff he says, but mostly boring, and eventually he left the RAAF, moved to Sydney, went back to Uni and studied Physics and Chemistry with an emphasis on electronics. He then returned to the teaching game in the private school system for a number of years and by chance had a trip to China, and as they say, liked it so much he stayed on. He’s been in the PRC now for 3 years, and is currently the director of studies at Holmes Colleges (6 campuses) in Shanghai. He says it keeps him pretty busy and he now rarely comes back to Aust and is gradually feeling more at home in China. He remarried while up there and is now the proud dad of a 9 month old boy.
Frank asked us to try and locate Ray Tame who was on the first course he took at Radschool,which we did, and we found Ray living on beautiful Bribie Island (Qld). Ray’s father in law was (back in Radschool days) a Grp Cptn in the RAF, and back then was out in Aust visiting Ray and young bride. Seems there was a "Do" on at the Officers’ Mess, and Ray, not having a supply of green pills, couldn’t accompany dad in law, so you guessed it, Frank was asked to accompany D-I-L to the Mess. Things ya gotta do as an Instructor.
Frank’s joined the Radschool Association, and we have his email address. If you want to get in touch drop us a line and we’ll forward it on. He made one of his infrequent trips to Australia early in February, and a couple of blokes we know met up with him for one or six at one of Brisbane’s finest, and from what we here he’s doing just fine and loving it.
| Why is it that in thia age of super fast computers and wonderful electronic wizz bangery you still have to use an old dipstick to check the oil level in your car ..... |
| Some of the revellers at the Brisbane reunion in March 2001 |
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An 85 year old bloke was having his annual check up and the doctor asked him how he was feeling. "I’ve never felt better" he boasted, "I’ve got an 18 year old bride who’s pregnant and having my child-what do you think about that?" The doctor considered this for a while, then said, "Let me tell you a story. I know a bloke who was a mad hunter. He never missed a season. One day he went out in a bit of a hurry and he accidentally grabbed his umbrella instead of his rifle. He was in the bush and a big grizzly bear popped up in front of him. Terrified, he raised the umbrella, pointed it at the bear and squeezed the handle. And do you know what happened next?" asked the doctor. "No-what ?" said the old bloke. "There was a loud explosion, and the bear dropped dead". "That’s impossible" said the old bloke, "someone else must have shot the bear". "That’s kind of what I was getting at………" said the doctor. |
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