More Defence news 2008
2787344 PRIVATE DAVID JOHN ELKINGTON FISHER
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David John Elkington FISHER was a man of action and one who lived life to the full. In his short 23 years of life he packed much more into that time than many others do over a whole lifetime.
Born on the 4 June 1946 in London UK, David grew up in a family where his dad was a distinguished bomber pilot during WWII and this meant the family experienced many moves in a short period of time. Eventually the family moved to Sydney as his father transferred from the RAF to the RAAF and was based in Richmond NSW. This meant that in reality David grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches as surfing became his number one obsession in life.
He went to school first in Balgowlah but soon thereafter at Sydney Grammar. He loved to play rugby and he was a member of the Mosman Rugby Union Club.
After leaving Grammar he went to work as an accountant and with the introduction of the National service training Scheme David volunteered like many others, rather than waiting for the results of the ‘lottery’. He threw himself wholeheartedly into his training. On his enlistment on the 17 July 1967 it was noted on his file that he had ‘Officer Potential’. David declined the offer to attend Officer Cadet School at Scheyville so that he could remain with his mates.
Private Fisher completed Basic recruit training at 1st Recruit Training Battalion Kapooka and volunteered to serve in the Royal Australian Infantry Corps and in fact had to undertake a second psych test to do this as the whole platoon had been allocated to Artillery. He completed his Infantry Corps training at Battle Wing at Ingleburn NSW and half way through his training was selected to attend the 1/68 SAS Cadre selection course in Swanbourne. He was selected for SAS but had to sign on for an additional year of service prior to posting to the Regiment.
After successfully completing the 1/68 Cadre course he then attended the Basic Para course, the SAS Regimental Signalers Course and the SAS Patrol Course.
During all of this training he was ‘one of the boys’ and loved a party after difficult training. He had a wide group of friends and was well respected as a soldier and as a man.
David was selected as reinforcement for 2 Sqn who had deployed to Vietnam in February 1968 ahead of his posted Squadron which was 3 Sqn. He arrived in Vietnam in December 1968.
He participated in many Long Range Recon patrols with various patrols before settling down into patrol 11 in L troop when his Sqn arrived in Feb 1969.
He never married.
His mum died when he was 9 years old and his father remarried. From the original marriage he had a sister Annie. His step-mum “Peg’ raised David and he had a step-sister Julia and a half-sister Penny.