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Parry
beats retreat
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Striking
the right note ... Chief Technician Mike Parry (centre)
with Corporal James Brice, Aircraftman Richard Maegraith
and Corporal Jacqui Waddell. Photo by LAC Duncan Rae
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After
five months of being an honorary member of the Air Command Band,
RAF Chief Technician Mike Parry regretfully returned to his British
homeland on September 23 after taking part in the UK contingent
involved in Exercise Longlook.
Chief Tech Parry, a member of the RAF Central Band, swapped places
with Flight Sergeant Dave Henry to see how the Air Command Band
does business and to experience as much of Australia as time would
allow. FSGT Henry has spent his five months working with each of
the RAF bands throughout England.
Chief Tech Parry, who has been in the RAF for 23 years, plays oboe
on stage and cymbals on parade. RAAF Richmond members would have
noticed him on parade with the Air Command Band wearing the RAF
grey uniform and playing cymbals so vigorously that they virtually
turned inside out.
In 1991, during the Gulf War, he was part of a contingent of RAF
band members attached to 4626 Aeromedical Evacuation Squad in Muharak,
Bahrain, for three months as medical orderlies.
This has been his first visit to Australia and won’t be the
last.
“The Air Command Band is such a great bunch, everyone has been
really generous with offers of day trips, dinners and lots of socialising,”
he said.
Exercise Longlook is the longest stretch he has been away from his
wife, Jo, and the chaps at Central Band in West London.
But Chief Tech Parry returns home happy that he saw kangaroos in
the wild, swam with dolphins, found funnel-web and red-back spiders,
ate oysters and crocodile and visited the Great Barrier Reef.
“I’ve been impressed with the professionalism and high
standard of the Air Command Band. They’re all such great musicians,
and the Big Band is amazing. If a vacancy came up in the band I’d
be in there like a shot,” he said.
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