Unit ends with pride

The Commanding Officer of No. 6 Hospital, Wing Commander Margaret Hine, prepares to receive the Govenor- General's Banner from the Colour Party.

No. 6 Hospital personnel march on to the parade ground for the last time as a unit. Photos by SGT Troy Rogers

With a mixture of pride and sadness, No. 6 Hospital paraded at RAAF Base Williams Point Cook for the last time on December 12 and was disbanded two days later.

The Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Margaret Hine, called on the words of the apostle Paul to describe the occasion: “We have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith.”

The hospital’s Governor-General’s Banner was formally laid-up with full ceremony at the parade and accompanying church service at the RAAF Chapel of the Holy Trinity.

Last month the unit – which started service as a lodger unit of 115 Army General Hospital Heidelberg on November 16, 1942 – proudly celebrated its 60th anniversary.

WGCDR Hine said during the church service that these words of Paul came to her as she was considering what to say –
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

“It is that analogy of Paul’s which, I believe, marks the achievement of No. 6 Hospital and all those who have served in the unit over the last 60 years,” she said.

WGCDR Hine said that the path over which the race had been run had not always been easy and never more so than the past few years. But each participant had persevered, endured and finished their section of the race with a determination and sense of pride and achievement which was second to none.

6HOSP has been disbanded largely owing to the outsourcing of Health Services in Victoria under the Defence Reform Program. The unit will become No.4 Air Transportable Health Flight under the command of the CO, 3CSH, RAAF Base Richmond, and will be known as Health Centre Williams.

WGCDR Hine highlighted three of the proudest moments of 6HOSP’s history.

The first was the award of the Governor-General’s Banner in recognition of the unit’s 50 years of contribution to the RAAF.

WGCDR Hine recently had the banner moved from the Officers Mess to the hospital as she believed it belonged to the whole unit. Two young medical assistants had stood looking at the banner for a while and when their CO approached said with pride, “Ma’am, that’s ours.”

The second proud moment was when a section from the hospital deployed to East Timor at the start of Interfet.
The third proud moment was when the unit deployed for the first time on active service to East Timor, going as the lead unit for the UN Military Hospital.

“6 Hospital was always considered a training hospital and therefore not deployable,” WGCDR Hine said. “But we asked the question, we pushed the boundaries, which is what each runner does in a race. The unit won high praise from all national command elements in East Timor and from our command here in Australia.

“As a unit we have reached the heights, we have now been taken to the lowest and we experience the deep sadness that comes with that. With heads held high we can say, as Paul did, ‘we have fought the good fight, we have finished the race, we have kept the faith’.”

The RAAF Williams Base Commander, Wing Commander Steve Edwards, said 6HOSP had been an integral part of the Laverton and Williams community.

He said WGCDR Hine had shown outstanding leadership during the dual challenges of preparing for an operational deployment to East Timor while being dedicated to the provision of effective health support in Victoria.

Hospital staff – service and civilian – were unanimous in their sense of pride in a job well done.

SNCO Ward One Sergeant Sharee Lewis said, “The hospital has played an important part in the history of the Air Force in southern region Australia, and has continued to do so with staff being deployed to Rwanda, Bougainville, Solomon Islands, East Timor, various islands in the Pacific region and more recently to Bali during the crisis there.”

• By Peter Johnson
  

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