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| Tribute to a fine officer By Cpl Andrew Hetherington Volume 11, No. 61, March 08, 2007 |
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In a fitting tribute to his Army service, an Abrams tank maintenance instructional facility was named in his honour at ALTC, North Bandiana, on February 19. The 36-year-old RAEME officer died on August 31 last year after falling ill while escorting Abrams tanks from the US aboard a civilian cargo ship. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said it was a privilege to open the Paul Lawton Memorial Instructional Facility. The facility has been specifically designed to train soldiers on maintenance aspects of the M1A1 Abrams and the M88A2 Hercules recovery vehicle. “The naming of this new facility in honour of Capt Paul Lawton is a fitting tribute to a fine Army officer and great mate,” Dr Nelson said. Maj Craig Byrne, a good friend and work colleague of Capt Lawton, said Paul would be embarrassed by the naming ceremony. The two first met in 2004 while posted to the Defence Materiel Organisation in Melbourne. “Paul was a very intelligent person, he always thought outside the square and thought deeply about anything he was about to proceed on,” he said. “Paul’s role at DMO was the Maintenance Plans Officer for Project Land 907.” But in his spare time Capt Lawton liked to tinker with electronic equipment and Maj Byrne said he was working on more projects than he had time for. “He would start a task and would never finish it,” he said. One of his projects was rebuilding a Vespa scooter. “I think it is still not back together and he pulled it apart four years ago.” Capt Lawton had another passion, which was performing as a DJ in his spare time. “He loved being a DJ. He went and did a DJ course, had his own sound decks and was in the process of opening his own company,” Maj Byrne said. “He was doing gigs in pubs around Melbourne. I went to some of them, it wasn’t too bad, the music was a bit too head banging for me, but he was good at it.” Capt Lawton also had a great sense of humour and a quick wit, a quirk not too many people knew about. “He liked to perform practical jokes on people and I was often the target of them,” he said. “Another thing about him was he never tied his shoelaces, even when he was in polyesters. I don’t know why he didn’t, it was just him; he tucked them into the sides of his shoes.” As a professional, Capt Lawton was a well respected and appreciated member of the tank replacement project. “Paul was good value for money, if I could have had two of him in the project, I would have,” he said. “He was very reliable with his work and performed to a very good standard.” Capt Lawton joined the Army on January 10, 1990, and served for nine years as a RASigs electrical technician before being selected for entry to ADFA. After completing his training he was allocated to RAEME and joined the Land 907 project team in 2004. He had 16 years of Army service. |
