National Serviceman

[Barrykgerdes]

Back to NST days

Some of my experiences at Amberly

We were all paraded to the airstrip one day to see Major Stoner (USAF) land a Canberra with no nose wheel. It hardly scratched the paint as it finally tipped forward. I met him a couple of months later when he gave me a lift from Brisbane one night when I was hitchhiking back from a leave weekend.

At other times we got to inspect the new Vulcan (The one that never made it back to England). The new American Neptunes with "secret anti submarine equipment" and the Lincolns that had been through the neuclear clouds at Woomera.

Another time an aircraft mechanic got court martialled for cross connecting the bomb bay door hydraulics on a Lincoln. I don't think it ever flew again.

I was the NST Squadron projectionist and got some extra priveledges. I also ran the Cinema on the non leave weekend two 16mm projectors. I can only remember showing "The Robe"

Met Dame Annabelle Rankin at the Padres hour ( he only used to get about 15-20 attendees) and had "tea" with her after her talk

Got myself out of route marches with a ploy that they said would not work. On the first one (It was a hot day) I overdid the "distressed look" but refused to give in. After that I was always allocated to the support team.

I missed the drill competition (which our flight won) with pleuro-pneumonea. Had to watch it from the hospital veranda

I was last to shoot in the Bren Gun shoot. Our first magazine was ten shots (single) from 300yds in ten seconds. I dived to my gun to shoot and the barrell was jammed (common). I changed barrel lined up the weapon with 2 seconds to spare and got away three bursts to empty the magazine, missed the bull with one round only. Boy they were accurate weapons.

At the beginning of the intake some "Bullying" took place. Normally you just got thrown into a cold shower but there were some good fights. When my "turn" came I said no trouble no contest. They all gave up after I got to the showers.

All in all it was a great experience.

Oh one more thing. Our flight Football team won the rugby league comp. That evening the CO came around to give them leave passes. They were nowhere to be seen. They had already taken their leave

Barry

[Jeffkop (Jeff)]

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

Back to NST days

Oh one more thing. Our flight Football team won the rugby league comp. That evening the CO came around to give them leave passes. They were nowhere to be seen. They had already taken their leave

Barry

Oh yes ... the annual 486sqn v's 2AD grudge match ... then OC's team picked to go to Darwin for the annual OC's bet match. To clear up, every year the OC's of both bases had a reasonablly sizable bet on the results of this match. It was always in July and I will never forget the experience of going from a Richmond winter to a Darwin winter (oxy moron that) to play footy. We never lost a game in the 3 years I went. We played a few other venues too and no-one was keen to come off until the 80th minute, but in Darwin especially one year I can recall a few hands going up early ... was so oppressive that humidity.

The time off to train was great as well. The only focus for near a month was footy .. well ther was money ridin on it wasnt there. IT was also about the time that the services had started to look seriously at the fitness of personel. There was actually fitness tests conducted and those who didnt make the grade were monitored closely and definately expected to shape up. So the footy training as a priority was an easyone to swing for the powers that b ... for me though it was a month away from flight lines, test benchs, aircraft and the military way.

[Barrykgerdes]

Yes Jeff

One must always get their priorities right!
We also won the Cricket (we had a Sydney first grader in the side)

Later on when I was in the CMF one of the men (completing his NST requirement of 2 years in the CMF) in my platoon was Frank Misson. He would have been handy if we could have got up a side! (unless the other side had Dougie Walters)

Barry