The Electronic Blue Beret

Just rang ya old mate Sluggo and told him you sent an email, and told him he could come around to my joint and email you back if he likes, as he lives in the slums of Weston and i live in the upper class area or Weston Heights just hope that his old 4 wheel drive can make the climb. He was ticked pink to hear your still going as he had lost site and sound of you.

I told him you were over there chasing sheep with ya wellies on.

Great to hear from ya Phil we await your return smoke signal.

The Pom.

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----- Original Message -----
From: betty
To: ozflea@bigpond.com.au
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2006 11:34 AM
Subject: Gday

Gday Pom
Found your web site today, completely by accident and was completely blown away. Just started to go through some of the old " Blue Beret's " and there are a lot of great memories there already. Names like Tank, (was my best man at my first wedding and dont think ive seen him since ) Terry May, Jazza, BECKY,Pete Burgin, Mick Brodie, christ the list just goes on and on. Feel free to put this email on your site etc ( belongs to my missus )
or I have another, philcskipper@hotmail.com

Keep up the great work and Sluggo, could I just say you have put on just a smidgen more weight than I remember you with. Remember the night we stood back to back and took on the beer garden in a Canberra Pub. Thats another story......
I got a bit of a wake up the other week, ( had a heart attack, but am a box of kookaburras again now ) and yeah, it would be good to contact some of the old guys.
I have been living in New Zealand for over twenty years and have only been home once, so I am certainly out of touch.

Cheers and Best Regards to All
Phil Crisp AKA CHESTER.

As far as hotel accommodation is concerned, we have had an arrangement with the Hilton hotel in Brisbane for the past year or so and they offer a corporate rate for members in town for ANZAC Day. I can't yet tell you what the rate will be this year, because we haven't met with them yet, but I'll let you know once its firmed up, and as usual, we'll have everything in the April Blue Beret. ( I imagine it will be similar to last year, about $105.00 per night, room only, but that will obviously have to be confirmed).We don't have any other arrangements with motels or accommodation houses, but I can certainly get Ron Tait to check them out and see what can be arranged.

As far as the after-March get together, it will be at 'our' pub, the Embassy. Its right in the heart of the city, about a five minute walk from the end of the march and less than 100 metres from the Hilton, which is in the same street. The Embassy is on the corner of Elizabeth and Edward Streets.

We don't have any other activities planned - we've found over the past couple of years that the guys generally will turn up for the march, then spend the rest of the day at the Embassy and go home - there hasn't been a great deal of interest from people in other functions or activities, either before or after ANZAC Day (or any other time of the year in fact, apart from our big reunions).

Re the ANZAC Day March, we always produce a State by Sate list of venues, march routes etc in the April Blue Beret. The RSL hasn't released this year's Order of March for Brisbane yet, so we don't have any concrete info on what position the Adgies are marching in, however at this stage our meeting point will be the same as always, on the corner of Elizabeth Street and North Quay, on the Casino side opposite Queens Park, from about 9.30 am onwards - you'll see the banner from a mile or so away, so it won't be a problem.

Kindest regards
Jim Gable

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Hi Phil

Just got your message via the Pom.

Mate, at the moment, berets are almost impossible to get - I have one 'medium' in stock, but I have to warn you that unless you have a very small head, you'll have problems getting it to fit, because the sizes are generally pretty small. We used to buy them direct from the RAAF Clothing Store at Amberley, but since they've changed over to civilian staff, we're having more and more trouble getting them, because they just don't understand who or what we are.

We're working through some contacts in Defence HQ to get the situation changed so that we can buy them again in bulk, but as you can guess, once these guys get a foot in the door, its very hard to shake them.

What I'd suggest is that if you know any serving Adgies in your area, perhaps they might be able to buy one for you, but you should be aware that unless you're a former ADG, you'll get a lot of resistance to that idea as well. The turkeys at Amberley L Group have also made it hard for us to go down that road, because they've restricted sales to 1 per individual, which goes onto their clothing card and makes it hard if the guy has to buy a replacement beret for himself at some time. Be prepared to pay about 25 bucks or so for one. The other alternative is to try and get one from Christies in Sydney, but they are very expensive and don't come with the embroidered badge, so that then creates another problem.

Sorry I can't be more positive but its as good as I can do right now.

Regards
Jim Gable
National Secretary/Treasurer
Airfield Defence Association Australia Inc.

Pommie,

I have just gone over the article last month regarding the "Boycotting of ANZAC Day".

Personally, I feel that any attempt to highjack ANZAC day is a slight at the fabric of our military traditions, whether one is promoting boycotting it or, as I have recently heard, wearing black bands etc the action should be ignored and if in discussion, condemned.

We all have been bitten by the bureaucratic bug and more than once our rights and pockets have been ignored. History shows that politicians have consistently resisted the veteran's plea for equality and have waited until they have all died or there is but a few left before granting any concessions.

There is no need to go into the real meaning of ANZAC day we all know it. Personally, I cannot count on my fingers and toes the number of my family members that have paid the 'ultimate sacrifice' since 1914. To put their memory aside to make a point about how much money one didn't get from the government is sacrilegious.

To all those who are considering this action, find another platform to grandstand on or get over it.

Regards

Tex Bryson

Gday Pom
Hope this picture comes through OK. Here goes with the names, apologies if I get any wrong.

Back Row. L _ R. Neville ( Wiggy ) Wiggins. .... ( Darb ) Darby ?. Wally Tennick. John ( JK ) Kenna. Ian ( Spike ) Dainer. Frank Wilmink. Ian ( Red ) Redfern. RIP old mate. Barry ( Biafra _ Super ) Olive. Terry Paine ? (SGT )

Next Row. standing. Ian ( Smithy ) Smith. Neville ? ( Buck ) Buckholtz ? Phil ( Chester ) Crisp. Big Ben Kuchel. Ian ( Sluggo ) Wheat. Noel ( Browny ) Brown.

Kneeling. Thomo ? Les ? ( Mas ) Maslin. FL / LT. Lionel Bleakley.. FL / LT Barry Williamson ( we wont go into the nick names for these two ) Matt Dillon. Neville ( Sinky ) Sinkinson. .... ( Rossy ) Ross.

Front Row. ..... Ben Hall. Keith ( the infamous KD ) Fisher. Grahame ( Mahery ) Maher. Rick ( Floyd ) Hardy. and did this bloke get a job opening packets of cereal since I saw him last ? have ya seen the amount of gongs he wears ? (good onya Floyd ). Smedley ( Smed ) Strong. Bill ( Bushy ) Trevethan. Harvey ( Jock ) Nichol.

Regards from across the ditch. Chester Crisp.

Can you read Arabic ??

The Plan!

Robin Williams, wearing a shirt that says "I love New York" in Arabic.

You gotta love Robin Williams......
Even if he's nuts! Leave it to Robin Williams to come up with the perfect plan. What we need now is for our
UN Ambassador to stand up and repeat this message.

Robin Williams's plan...(Hard to argue with this logic!)

"I see a lot of people yelling for peace, but I have not heard of a plan for peace. So, here's one plan.

1) "The US will apologize to the world for our 'interference' in their affairs, past & present. You know: Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Noriega, Milosevic, Hussein, and the rest of those 'good ole boys;' we will never 'interfere' again.

2) "We will withdraw our troops from all over the world, starting with Germany, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Philippines. They don't want us there. We would station troops at our borders. No one allowed sneaking through holes in the fence.

3) "All illegal aliens have 90 days to get their affairs together and leave.
We'll give them a free trip home. After 90 days, the remainder will be gathered up and deported immediately, regardless of who or where they are.
They're illegal!!! France will welcome them.

4) "All future visitors will be thoroughly checked and limited to 90 days unless given a special permit!!!! No one from a terrorist nation will be allowed in. If you don't like it there, change it yourself and don't hide here. Asylum would never be available to anyone. We don't need any more cab drivers or 7-11 cashiers.

5) "No foreign 'students' over age 21. The older ones are the bombers.If they don't attend classes, they get a D, and it's back home, baby.

6) "The US will make a strong effort to become self-sufficient energy-wise.
This will include developing nonpolluting sources of energy, but will require temporary drilling for oil in the Alaska wilderness. The caribou will have to cope for a while.

7) "Offer Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing countries $10 a barrel for their oil. If they don't like it, we go someplace else. They can go somewhere else to sell their production. (About a week of the wells filling up the storage sites would be enough.)

8) "If there is a famine or other natural catastrophe in the world, we will not 'interfere.' They can pray to Allah, or whomever, for seeds, rain, cement, or whatever they need. Besides, most of what we give them is stolen or given to the army. The people who need it most get very little, if anything.

9) "Ship the UN Headquarters to an isolated island someplace. We don't need the spies and fair-weather friends here. Besides, the building would make a good homeless shelter or lockup for illegal aliens.

10) "All Americans must go to charm and beauty school. That way, no one can call us 'Ugly Americans' any longer. The language we speak is ENGLISH...learn it...or LEAVE."

"Now, isn't that a winner of a plan?"

"The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, 'Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' She's got
a baseball bat, and she's yelling, 'You want a piece of me?' "

If you agree with the above, forward it to friends...If not, and I would be amazed, DELETE it!!

Author:
JOHN GIBSON

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Date Posted: 23:34:56 02/22/06 Wed

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Hi to all you guys. Love reading the monthly reports and seeing you are all doing well. I am still serving as a reservist on six month contract at present with the Air to Air refuellers of 33SQN Richmond, not flying just looking after the tasking side of things. I ride with the Vietnam Veterans MC here in Sydney and Bob Field off 14 course is also a member and a couple of weeks back Rex Milner was down from the VVMC Brisbane club, good to run into the old and bold now and then. Take care out there. Gibbo

This was taken from one of our forums fellas.... The Pom.

G'day Pom

I'm in the throws of revamping the trophies for the courses here at GDTF by trying to inject a bit of ADGie history into them (you may have noticed the revamped Terence Toole Trophy and there is a new Tom Irvine award in the mail).

The next project is to rename the Basic Course PT proficiency trophy the "CPL Dave Dubber award" but unfortunately I haven't been able to find to much info about him. I have the details of when he was killed but want a few more facts to put on the plaque. What I'm after is;

What basic course he was on?

The when, where and why did he earn his MID?

Can you fill a few blanks or point me in the direction of someone who would know?

Many thanks

Geoff Banning
Bung Banning
WOFF GDTF
RAAFSFS
Ext 13674

Gday Chester,

Mate i have been perusing this photo and wonder about the date it was taken as gee a lot of new faces are present, i left 2 Sqn on the 4-3-71 and don't recall half of them being there when i was.

The Names i recall were, Nit Noy, Bushy Bill, Grame Maher, Spike, Slack-ass Sluggo the neighbour from hell.

The fella first from the left kneeling is Alan (Woody) Woodall i'm sure, wouldn't have a clue what he looks like now after your surprise at seeing pic's of Sluggo.

A few of the faces went on to bigger and better things like Spike who they couldn't chuck out so they made him a Squadron Leader to keep him happy.

The Pom ......Phan-Rang ......3-4-70 to 4-3-71.
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Gday Pom.

This photo was taken sometime between your leaving and 23 / 06 / 71. I was posted to Phan Rang 28 / 01 / 71 and was posted to Vung Tau on the above date. We left Phan Rang beach a little after dark in a reasonably large Landing Craft type ship. Myself 2 or 3 other ADG's some Transport personnel and some LandRovers and Trucks spent the night travelling down the coast . Think we got to Vung Tau Harbour around 10 the next morning. Seem to recall Buck ( Buckholtz ) being one of the escort party.

Cheers Chester.

Pom

Haven't caught up for a few years. Just to let you know that I caught up with one of our long serving, and long retired, ADGs the other day. FSGT Geoff Lovell (Retd), one time DI turned ADG is alive and well at 75 and lives just outside the main gate of RAAF Wagga. Geoff was in charge of the RSTT ADG drill instructors during my apprenticeship years of 1970/72. Geoff went to Vietnam in the late 60s, but I note his name does not appear on any of your rolls. Geoff is a life-time honorary member of the RAAF Wagga Sergeants' Mess, and will be well known to any ADGs serving at Wagga throughout the 60s and early 70s (he came to Wagga in 1958). I will forward a photo in the near future. All the best.

Bob

RCooper
R.F. COOPER
Group Captain
Officer Commanding Ground Training Wing

Gday Bob.

I have just checked the Vietnam Veterans Nominal Roll and Geoff's name is not listed, maybe he elected not to have his name included so therefore i have no details on his Vietnam service.

The Pom.