More than 180 years’ experience
New officers have much to offer

By FLTLT Leo Hasler

Former airmen and SNCOs who have graduated from OTS: (Back) PLTOFFs Matt Thomas, Ben Mason, Tim Keating, Dave McCarron, Daniel Gill, Bryan Andrews and Scott Elmes. (Middle) PLTOFFs Stephen Healing, Karri Roberts, Tanya Freeman, FLGOFF Fleur Trezise, PLTOFFs Anita Ramm and Katie Cooper. (Front) PLTOFFs Tom Fitzsimmons, Steve Williams, Tim Spiteri, Darren Cooper, Dom Burge and Simon Richardson. Absent is PLTOFF Adrian Pudsey.

Photo by Keith Bedford/Snapshots

THEY might be junior officers but don’t get the impression they lack experience.

The 45 officers who graduated from Officers Training School (OTS) at RAAF Base Williams, Point Cook, on November 7 included 20 former airmen and SNCOs with more than 180 years of collective experience in the Air Force.

The graduates consisted of 41 members of 5/03 Initial Officer Course and four former sergeants of 5/03 Initial Officer Course (Senior Airmen).

The winner of the Leadership and Military Qualities Award for the best overall student, Pilot Officer Tom Fitzsimmons, joined the Air Force in 1982 and served as a Radio Technician Ground.

His postings included two stints at ATTU interspersed with a posting to Butterworth. In 1993 the then Sergeant Fitzsimmons left the Air Force when his mustering was disbanded.

At the time he was serving as an instructor at Radio School, a posting he described as “the best job in the Air Force”. PLTOFF Fitzsimmons re-enlisted in 2001 as a CETECH and was granted the rank of Corporal.

Following the graduation parade he was reunited with his family, with whom he has spent little time this year. In January he was involved in pre-deployment training and was deployed to the Middle East from February to May.

On his return, he was home for just six weeks during which he completed the recruiting and testing process for his commission before leaving for OTS in July. To add to the disruption, in that time he and his family also moved house.

Watching the graduation from the sidelines were Tom’s parents, his wife Catherine, daughters Josie and Emma, son Michael and grandson Daniel.

PLTOFF Fitzsimmons paid tribute to his course mates when asked what it meant to him to be awarded the LMQ award.

“It would be impossible to win this award without the people you have around you. Everybody supports each other and feeds off each other to achieve their best. Without the assistance of the people around you, you could not finish the course,” he said.

“The people on the course were fantastic. I have made a lot of great friends whilst at OTS.”

He also paid tribute to the “fabulous Directing Staff at OTS, who proved to be excellent role-models and mentors”.

Among the others to graduate from 5/03 IOC was an ex-Corporal CLK, Pilot Officer Katie Cooper.

She and Pilot Officer Anita Ramm will become the first Administrative Officers to enter ADFA under the Airmen Access to the Academy (AAA) Scheme.

PLTOFF Cooper had been deployed to Bacau in East Timor during 1999.

She revisited the name Bacau during her time at OTS as Exercise Bacau was a simulated Command Post exercise conducted as part of the Ground Defence training at OTS.

She made the decision to seek a commission after eight years as a clerk as a way of “seeking new challenges”.
Her main recollection of OTS was the “friendship and mates she had made”. She also paid tribute to the Director of Military Administration - Air Force, Group Captain Dave Edwards.

“Without Group Captain Edwards’ efforts to secure positions for Admin officers in the AAA Scheme, Anita and I would not have the opportunity to go to ADFA,” she said.

PLTOFF Cooper is looking forward to the military environment of ADFA and to her role in mentoring junior cadets.
The graduates of 5/03 IOC included a former Corporal CISCON, Pilot Officer Tanya Freeman.

A veteran of a deployment to Cambodia with UNTAC in 1992/93, PLTOFF Freeman is also going on to ADFA. She will be the first female Logistics Officer to gain access to the AAA scheme.

Air Commodore Rodney Luke, Commander Training - Air Force, reviewed the OTS graduation parade that was watched by more than 200 family members and friends of the graduates.

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