Proud to enter Air Force service
“This is a proud moment, I never dreamed I would see it happen. He has been mixed up with aircraft since he could crawl.”

By Peter Johnson

Officer Cadet Phu Ni Lam gets a kiss from his mother while surrounded by family members at the Officer Training School graduation.

Squadron Leader Murray Nash (ret’d) congratulates his grandson, Officer Cadet Derek Nash. Also with OFFCDT Nash is his father Bruce and mother Wendy.

Happily settled in Australia and part of the Air Force family is Flight Lieutenant Peter Duddridge after the graduation. With him is (from left) daughter Jo, wife Angie and daughters Kate and Charlene.

Photos by SGT Dave Grant

THE son of a former South Vietnamese infantryman who came to Australia as a refugee, the grandson of a World War II fighter pilot and an ex-Royal Air Force warrant officer were among the graduates of the Initial Officer Course at Point Cook on September 12.

Mr Phu Bang Lam and members of his family attended the graduation parade to see his son, Officer Cadet Phu Ni Lam, graduate with 25 others from the 04/03 Initial Officer Course.

Mr Lam served in the South Vietnamese infantry from 1972-75 before being placed into rehabilitation then detention until 1978. He escaped Vietnam in 1979 by boat, arriving in Australia in 1980 where he received refugee status, and sent for his family in 1988.

OFFCDT Lam said: “My dad got me interested in the military but didn’t know what service to go into. My interest in flight led me to join the RAAF.”

Squadron Leader Murray Nash (ret’d), DSO DFC and Bar, was also on hand to see his grandson, Officer Cadet Derek Nash, graduate.

SQNLDR Nash served in North Africa and Italy in WWII flying P40 Kittyhawk and P51 Mustang aircraft.

“This is a proud moment, I never dreamed I would see it happen. He has been mixed up with aircraft since he could crawl. It is up to him to go on from here,” he said.

OFFCDT Nash, who heads into the pilot training stream, is the third generation of his family to choose a flying career. His father Bruce is also a pilot, flying with Horizon Airlines out of Bankstown.

Mr Nash, whose flying career has spanned Ansett, TAT in France, Air Macedonia and Singapore Airlines, acknowledged that his and his father’s aviation backgrounds were strong influences on Derek.

“We were brought up on a farm in South Gippsland. My father received some property in the soldier settlement scheme after the war,” he said.

“I never dreamed I would see Derek in the Air Force, marching around the parade ground. It is quite an emotional time for me and his grandfather.”

OFFCDT Nash now heads to Tamworth to train on CT4 aircraft. His father trained on the Victa Airtourer, the CT4’s predecessor, at the La Trobe Valley Aero Club.

The graduates also included Flight Lieutenant Peter Duddridge, who comes to the RAAF after a career with the RAF which began in 1978. He was a Warrant Officer MT technician before he joined the RAAF, and is currently serving at Support Equipment Logistics Management Unit at RAAF Base Williams, Laverton.

FLTLT Duddridge said he came to Australia on duty with the RAF in 2001 for 10 days and decided then to join the RAAF.

“On January 16 this year I got a commission and flew out here on the 17th. I started work on the 22nd,” he said.
His RAF service included three postings to the Falklands, four months each time.

Among his awards are an MBE and a Meritorious Service Medal. FLTLT Duddridge modestly attributed his MBE to “undetected crime” but later conceded it was “for work mainly, over a period of time”.

He will become an Australian citizen on September 25.

Parade reviewing officer CDF General Peter Cosgrove told the graduates’ families they should be very proud and that their support could not be overstated.

“There are going to be times when that support will be tough to give, separations are hard to bear, but what they do is very important to the safety of this great nation of ours,” GEN Cosgrove said.

He congratulated the participants on the standard of the parade and praised the split-second timing of the flypast.

“You must continue to uphold the standards of a magnificent Air Force and you will be expected to lead by example,” he said. “In my view the RAAF is the finest in the world. You have all shown you are willing to accept responsibility for the good of the Defence Force and the country. This is only the start, your learning doesn’t stop here.”

At the graduation, Officer Cadet Benjamin Gough received the Leadership and Military Qualities Award.

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