SQNLDR Greg Cashmere (left) and WGCDR Terry Morgan, both wearing Space Cowboy badges, pose with a Space Cowboys movie poster in front to their 32SQN Kingair at RAAF Base Sale.

People call them the 'Space Cowboys'. They're silver-haired, the other side of 40 and are looking to recruit new members into their 'exclusive fraternity' within the Royal Australian Air Force.

It all began last year when Squadron Leader Greg Cashmere and Wing Commander Terry Morgan were reappointed to the Air Force after years away from the Services.

SQNLDR Cashmere had taken a 15-year break from the Air Force to fly for the Royal Flying Doctor Service. WGCDR Morgan, meantime, a former Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, had returned to the RAAF after a five-year hiatus.

In welcoming the pair back to RAAF Base Sale's No. 32 Squadron last July, the Commanding Officer introduced them as 'two Space Cowboys', an analogy relating to a recently released movie of the same name.

Space Cowboys stars Clint Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, James Garner and Donald Sutherland as four retired NASA astronauts recalled to man a Space Shuttle flight that would ultimately 'save the world'.

While SQNLDR Cashmere and WGCDR Morgan were not reappointed to 'save the world', their new moniker stuck and the Air Force's own version of the Space Cowboys was born.

Taking the Space Cowboy theme a step further, SQNLDR Cashmere and WGCDR Morgan decided to celebrate being the Squadron's elder statesmen and officially commemorate their re-appointment with a Space Cowboy badge.

'We thought we'd like to make ourselves distinctive, other than the grey hair, so we came up with the idea of a badge,' SQNLDR Cashmere said.

He said inducted Cowboys could purchase an official badge (or two at $5 each plus postage) to wear with pride.

The badge is seven-sided, representing the 'seven ages of man', has a silver edge and title in keeping with members' hair colour and appropriately boasts a mythical Phoenix, said to have 'risen from the ashes reborn'.

The Cowboy motto, inscribed on the badge in Latin, means 'Sons of Mothers'.

SQNLDR Cashmere's Space Cowboy fraternity is currently looking for new - or should that be old - recruits.

To become a Space Cowboy, members must be a re-appointee to the Air Force, be aircrew and over 40, and be appointed to a line flying position.

Potential Space Cowboys can contact SQNLDR Cashmere at RAAF Base Sale on (03) 5146 7446 or email at: Gregory.Cashmere@defence.gov.au

While WGCDR Morgan can be contacted on (03) 5146 7137.

By Ben Caddaye