Ben Roberts-Smith

[facthunter]

Am I posting in invisible INK? Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

 You didn't go there, did you, Gon. Nev

Just as well. I was already crazy enough with anger from being unable to work in my trade, they wouldn't let me. I went from being a fitter & turner working in a large Engineering factory (Hawker DeHavilland), to being a lowly driver in the idiot Army, as it was then. My trade meant everything to me.

Edited yesterday at 03:14 AM by Grumpy Old Nasho

[facthunter]

Hawker-DeHav's at Bankstown? I taught at Liverpool HS and flew out of Bankstown and pitted race cars at Warwick farm and have had electroless Nickel Plating done at DeHavillands. We may have Passed like Ships in the Night .Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

1 hour ago, facthunter said:

I'd say a lot didn't want to go but some volunteered. Someone more Knowledgeable may have some figures on that. Returnees were treated abominably, Even by the RS League. That was disgusting and shameful.  Nev

48 thousand were conscripted, 15 thousand went Vietnam.

 

I knew a bloke who wasn't conscripted, just joined voluntarily and then volunteered to go and fight there. Unfortunately, he was involved in a friendly fire incident where one guy was too far out in front and was mistaken for an enemy combatant ... my mate shot him, sadly. I guess it was hushed up, but I got it from the horses mouth when he was back here at home. For brave acts he performed at other times, one in particular, he received bravery medals from every Western nation involved there ... all but Australia, he went on to tell me. He was not just a little peeved about that.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

No, Hawker DeHavillands at Lidcombe.

[facthunter]

Bugger No Planes to watch.  Did you go to a Tech College ? Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Of course - Granville Tech.

 

I might mention that a fellow apprentice, who was an avid scuba diver, eventually went to live in Marracoota on the south coast. He more or less started the abalone business down there, which grew tremendously and paid good money, everyone got in on it. He met a woman and got married there, had three offspring. I can mention his name because he and his wife were passengers on that fatal plane brought down by the Russians, so the story goes. Jerry Menke. R.I.P. We worked together for a little while in H/Dehavilland's laboratory as apprentices. We travelled home on the train together. I think he was of Dutch descent hence flying in a KLM plane. You remember that don't you? the plane that was brought down by a rocket. Very sad story.

[onetrack]

GON, it wasn't a KLM plane, it was a Malaysia Airlines flight, MH17. And your mates name is actually spelled Gerry. It was a very sad event, made worse by the lack of acknowledgement or responsibility for downing the aircraft, on the Russians part.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-15/victorian-mh17-victims-formally-identified/5672970

 

Why didn't you go back to fitting and turning at Hawker-DeHavilland after you did your NS? It was obligatory for businesses to hold job positions open for their employees doing National Service.

 

QUOTE:

"Under the National Service Act 1964, employers were legally obligated to hold positions open for employees who were called up for compulsory military duty.

 

Key Details of the Mandate:

 

Reinstatement Obligation: Employers had to restore servicemen to their previous positions (or an equivalent role) as soon as practicable upon their completion of full-time service.

 

Terms and Conditions: The returned employee was entitled to the same salary, status, and seniority they would have achieved if they had not been conscripted.

 

Eligibility Rules: To qualify, the employee typically needed to have been employed by the business for a set period prior to their call-up."

 

Edited yesterday at 01:46 PM by onetrack

[facthunter]

There was a Large number of Dutch Nationals on that MH Plane. GON, I also went to Granville tech doing Organic chemistry for one Year. Nev

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

22 hours ago, onetrack said:

GON, it wasn't a KLM plane, it was a Malaysia Airlines flight, MH17. And your mates name is actually spelled Gerry. It was a very sad event, made worse by the lack of acknowledgement or responsibility for downing the aircraft, on the Russians part.

 

Yes thanks for the corrections. I was typing from memory and that's in a poor state of repair these days. Gerry's wife was a Kiwi, I used to wonder if he'd ever get married, they must have really clicked when he first met her. He was a bit reserved around women when I knew him, but he had a sense of humor and I don't think he realized that that was enough to get the women in (I should say "girls", we were all pretty young then, in our late teens).

 

 It hits me hard when friends lose their lives. Another was a young tradesman, a conscript too, in my platoon at basic training. He was blown up in a crater that the N/Vietnamese had booby trapped, his Dad told me years later when I called him. They ran into an ambush and ran for cover. I read about his death in a newspaper at the same time I was doing kitchen duty that night. It was a shock that took me a week to shake off, a young tradesman dying like that for no good reason.

 

 

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by Grumpy Old Nasho