Life in the RAAF (Part III)

Deepest apologies to RSG, who sent me this piece a while ago (unfortunately in the middle of my graduation thesis period). But anyway--and I know that some of you have been eagerly waiting for this--without further ado, here it is, Life in the RAAF, Part III:

After six months, I was posted to No 6 RAAF Hospital at Laverton RAAF Base (still down south in the state of Victoria). Life here was quite different and rather more formally structured. Whereas at Point Cook, we could walk (smartly) individually to work following morning roll call, at Laverton we formed into a unit squad after breakfast and marched, under the command of the ranking NCO to our workplace. I think there were between two to three times as many female service personnel at Laverton as there had been at Point Cook – and it was also a much bigger base. The Hercules were flying regular runs up to Richmond (north of Sydney) and on to Amberley (near Brisbane) as well as a few Mirages flying in this era. This was also the home of the RAAF Radio School and there was a large RAAF Apprentice School housed at Laverton – all in all, a much larger base than Point Cook. There were also some USAF blokes stationed there. I remember one of my friends married one of the Americans and my civilian boyfriend (whom I later married) and I attended her wedding in the RAAF Chapel on base. I know her name was Mandy, but I can’t remember his name. I sometimes wonder how it all worked out and if they are still together in the USA somewhere, or whether they settled in Oz.

In September, 1965, The RAAF put on a two-day Air Show at Laverton and all personnel were on duty. Some photos of aircraft featured at this event can still be viewed here.

We had a wide variety of entertainment provided on base. There were various clubs (accessible depending upon your rank), a cinema which usually showed most of the recently released films; the ‘Boozer’ or ‘Beery’, which was the on-base licenced premises accessible to service personnel only; the various Messes – Airmen’s, Sergeants’ and Officers’ – which provided us with three good meals a day, seven days a week. We also had Squash Courts, Tennis Courts, Volley Ball and Water Polo teams, and various other sporting teams such as Basketball, Netball, Women’s Cricket, etc. And, of course, there was the ever popular canteen where we could buy just about anything we needed – it was really like a mini department store cum supermarket cum coffee shop – and was a great meeting place, as well as offering an alternate eating place in lieu of the Mess.

My boyfriend lived in Melbourne and I spent most of my weekend leave at his home, his parents having assured my parents that they would look after me on their behalf. After all, I had moved over 1,000 miles from home and, whilst my parents gave me their blessings, it was not without some misgivings for I was their youngest child and only daughter (my brothers all being quite some years older than I was). When I was based at Laverton, he would come down to visit me one night a week and we would have dinner in the canteen with two other couples and then we’d go to the cinema as a group. Afterwards, he would walk me back to the Barracks where we would say a somewhat public goodnight and he would ride back up to Melbourne (on his Vespa motor scooter) to his parents’ home. The RAAF powers-that-be were very concerned with ensuring we were all well chaperoned in this era!! When he came down to pick me up for weekend leave, he drove his MGTD, a classic car that we dearly wish we still had….

Once again, at Laverton, I found myself working in the Orderly Room – this time in Casualty / Outpatients where I would greet the patients and organise their appointments with our Medical Officers. Another responsibility of this job was that of reminding pilots and aircrew that their annual medicals were due. It always surprised me how some reasonably high-ranking officers would baulk at attending their medical – always ‘too busy to do it this week, LACW. You’ll just have to schedule me in for another time.’ After a while I became quite accustomed to politely responding along the lines of ‘Well, sir, I’m sorry, but the MO has asked me to remind you that he’ll be forced to ground you if you don’t get this done by Friday.’ Amazing how quickly they’d find time then – and often with a laugh and a grin when they’d report in.

It was whilst I was based at Laverton that my wonderful civilian (but still an Aircraft Engineer) proposed and we celebrated our engagement at the base Christmas Party which was held in the Airmen’s Mess. I was spending my weekend leave at his parents’ home and I wore my new ring for the first time that night. We received many congratulatory greetings from friends and colleagues of all ranks – which when I think back, reminds me just how much of a family we really were. There was definitely a sense of looking out for our own!