Vol 49

Apr 2015

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Sadly, in the few months since our last issue, we have once again lost some very good mates.

 

  See Page 2

Our lovely Page 3 girl this issue is Marie Roberts and we have some old course pics.

 

See Page 3

Are those “free” fix-it tools any good? And how do those solar panels work?  Sam knows!

 

See Page 4

The RAAF once had a Goony that got itself into all sorts of trouble.

 

  See Page 5

Ted has the latest pension rates and during WW2, did a Mustang zoom through the Eiffel Tower?

 

  See page 6

That meek and mild young man about town, John Sambrooks, tells us his story.

 

See Page 7

Once again, Avalon hosts a world class Airshow.

 

  See Page 8

If the RAAF can’t do it, the Navy will. A runaway Auster put Sydney on alert

 

See Page 9

There is a group of dedicated people in Werribee who are re-building a WW2 Liberator.

 

See Page 10

Are our brains being overloaded? And it’s proven, walking is good for you.

 

See Page 11

HARS, the home of Connie and many other wonderful old aircraft, now has a B747.

 

See Page 12

Anthony tells us how to make a living out of being wrong!

 

See Page 13

RSL Clubs do a lot of wonderful things for their elderly members. Kedron Wavell is one of the best.

 

See Page 14

19 Radio Appies got together in Melbourne recently – the lies flew thick and fast.

 

See Page 15

John Laming has a story or few of his time with Air Nauru.

 

See Page 16

 

A couple of blokes have been a bit crook and could do with a bit of a cheer up.

 

See Page 17

We’re looking for a few people, perhaps you can help.

 

See Page 18.

This is where you have your say. We look forward to getting your letters - so please keep them coming.

 

See page 19

Here’s the news, all the news, the whole news and nothing but the news.

 

See page 20.

Index.

 

The Index is now finished - all references have been linked so if you're looking for a topic or a photo of someone, click on the Index link on the top of each page and just follow the links.

 

 

If you agree or disagree with anything in this Magazine - please let us know.

Click on "Contact Us" at the top of any page and have your say.

 

 

 

 

RAM thought for the day.

 

“The city is recruited from the country.”

 

 

New Look.

 

Firstly, thanks to all who contributed “ideas” and designs for our new look, Some were good and some were – well, different!! In the end, as luck would have it, we were in Hobart in March and one of our lovely nieces, who is a Graphic Designer, had a look at what we had and offered to help out. In no time at all, she had a few designs for us from which to chose and we selected the above.

 

Thanks Delli – and any if anyone wants some design work done, check out her web site, you won't find better.  www.voguishdesign.com.au

 

 

Opinion.

 

We get lots of letters from lots of people and since our last issue a few from serving bods contained the following:

 

CDF Order of the day - Social media personal and operational security awareness

 

A prominent newspaper in the United States recently reported that a group identifying itself as Daesh (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) has posted information on the internet listing the names, addresses and photos of 100 American military members. It appears that the information posted by Daesh came from open sources, such as social media sites.

 

Defence members are reminded that nothing they post on social media sites is private. Personal information can be obtained and used by issue motivated groups and terrorist organisations to identify potential targets. Fake online profiles can be used to elicit personal or operational information from Defence members and their friends and families. ADF members should think very carefully about disclosing details of their military service and are not to talk about operational matters on social media.

 

When engaging in online forums or sending information privately, Defence personnel must exercise judgement to ensure that the information posted or transmitted does not breach security requirements, adversely affect the safety or wellbeing of Defence personnel and their families, or cause damage to Defence’s reputation and their own.

 

This is not just about personal or organisational reputation – it’s about your security and the safety of your family, friends and colleagues.

 

Further information is available at http://www.cybersmart.gov.au and Defence Instruction (General) Administration 08-2 Use of social media by Defence personnel.

 

All well and good, anything to ensure the safety of our ADF personnel – but if ACM Binskin is serious and worried about his staff being displayed in the social media, perhaps he should do something about this:

 

 

In 2014, and you can bet it will be the same this year, the Army, Navy and Air Force had members marching in the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras - in full uniform. Posts in social media, like Facebook and Twitter, unless they go viral, have limited exposure, this sort of thing (above) not only gets posted on social media, but these photos are plastered in every mainstream newspaper and shown on TV – world wide!!!! Talk about exposure!!!  But, why IS the ADF marching in a Gay Mardi Gras – are we all nuts, or is it just me. Is that what the ADF is for – to get involved in minority social issues??

 

Seems very strange to me..

 

When you think about it, there is a lot of strange stuff around today – the world’s values seem to have gone topsy turvey. For example:

  • Why does the death of a bunch of greyhounds get more attention in the media than the death of a bunch of people? 

  • Why aren’t teachers allowed to “fail” a student when that student has obviously failed? 

  • Why do repeat offenders continue to get bail by our courts? 

  • Why is the minority’s view more important and pandered to at the expense of the mainstream population?

  • Why has the RSPCA got more “pull” than Braveheart or Beyond Blue?

Is it only me, am I nuts or what??  

 

 

 

Veteran and Community Grant.

 

Recently we made application to DVA for one of their Veteran and Community Grants in order to purchase a “portable” computer system which we could take to the numerous reunions and events which we attend.

 

We sought advice and had a good look around and decided the Microsoft Surface Pro computer system would suit our purposes perfectly.

 

Our grant was approved and this is what we bought,

 

Surface Pro 512 GB

Keyboard cover

MS Office 365

Wireless Mouse

2 TB back up disc

SD card reader

Unpowered USB hub/4 GB memory dongle

Powered USB hub

Carry case

3 years warranty

 

 

The Veteran and Community Grant’s programme (V&CG) aims to maintain and improve the independence and quality of life for members of the veteran community by providing funding for projects that support activities and services to sustain or enhance health and wellbeing. V&CG is open to ex-service organisations, veteran representative groups and other organisations. It provides seed funding to develop projects that will become sustainable and financially viable and that have an ongoing benefit for members of the veteran community.

 

If you are a member of such an organisation and could use funds to benefit your members, you should consider the V&CG. You can read or download DVA’s guidelines on how to apply HERE.

 

 

 

Course Photos.

 

We intend to eventually have copies of as many RAAF courses (with names) as it is possible to obtain. When finished you will be able to search by course name and/or personal name and if your course is there, get a copy. Availability is the big problem, some photos are easy to get others we have to travel to copy but over the coming months we intend to do so. We now have most of the WRAAF course photos and names and will get them up soon. You can check what we have by going to the www.Radschool.org.au site then click “Course Photos”. If you see any errors let us know or if we're missing any names and you can provide them - please do.

 

Over time the list we've started will be expanded, we hope to be able to include courses that were held at Wagga, Frogers, Pt Cook, Sale etc.

 

 

 

Photos.

 

Most (but not all) of the photos on our pages have been ‘crunched’ to make them open faster. If you want a copy of any in their original condition just email us, use the “Contact Us” link at the top of page, tell us which one you want (Vol and page #) and if we have a better copy we’ll email it back to you.

 

This edition contains a lot of photos and if your internet connection is not all that fast you will find some pages will take a while to load. If this is the case, it is best if you just open the page and wait a little while until it fully downloads before trying to navigate through it.

 

 

 

Membership.

 

We’ve changed the membership rules. From now on anyone can join. If you’re RAAF (serving or Ex) you’re now a full member, everyone else is an Associate Member. We’ll change the membership application and the list of members soon.  We stopped being just Radschoolites a long time ago,

 

Please check the list of names and if you’ve joined but your name isn't there, please click on the "Join the Association" tag (there's one on the top of each page) fill in the details again and send it to us. If you’re not a member and would like to be, do likewise.

 

Also, if you change your address, or phone numbers or email address, or you just want to say hello, or you want to give us a tongue lashing, you can do so by clicking on the "Contact Us" tag, also at the top of each page and filling in the details. It's so easy even an instrument fitter could do it, it's all done on line, no printing out forms and no postage.

 

Over the past couple of months we have been able to put a bunch of people in contact with long lost mates - but that's only because we have your details. Please click on the Join the Association tag and fill it in, the more people that join the more we can match up.

 

If you want to get the RAM, but don’t want to join the association, that’s not a problem either. Just click on the “Contact Us” link at the top of each page and fill in the details and tell us to add your email to the list. Then whenever a new edition is released you will be advised.

 

We don't and won't give out your details to anyone so there is no risk of you being spammed.

 

 

 

Reunions.

 

If you're having a reunion and you would like us to cover it and publish it, let us know (well in advance if possible) and we'll see what can be done. We now have some generous sponsors who have contributed funds to the association so we do have limited travel funds available.

 

 

 

Errors

 

Our aim is to have this site error free – but that’s probably impossible. But with your help I reckon we can get pretty close. If you see any errors, be they punctuation, spelling, links that don’t work, facts wrong etc, (no matter how small) please let us know so we can fix them.

 

 

 

You can download the full magazine in PDF format HERE.

It is a very large file, contains 234 pages and will take a while to download.

The margins have been set so you can print on both sides of the page.

 

 

 

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