Decision a cause for joy

READERS of Air Force News will be aware of my use in recent years of the letters section as part of my efforts in seeking a government reversal to the decision to sell-off a large portion of the Point Cook base.

The writing of this letter gives me untold joy with the recent announcement by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of defence, Fran Bailey, that Point Cook – the world’s oldest continuously operating military airfield and birthplace of the RAAF – will be kept in public ownership and managed by a non-profit trust for the next 49 years. In other words, the Federal Government has cancelled its plans to sell a large portion of the historic site.

I am also comforted by an awareness that as well as there being many other individual proponents for the “saving of Point Cook”, there was a veritable host of kindred aviation/heritage organisations whose collective voices had strong common agendas for the Commonwealth retention of the Point Cook property.

It would be safe for me to say that among the major contributors to the reversal of the Point Cook sale were the Point Cook Preservation Action Group under Secretary Mark Pilkington and the Point Cook Operations Ltd Committee chaired by retired Air Vice Marshal P. Scully.

The putting together by Ms Bailey of the elements that favoured the retention of Point Cook as the best case was surely the catalyst for what will prove to be a history-making decision for Australian heritage interests.

A.E. Ilton
WGCDR (ret’d)
Kirra Beach, Queensland

Strong friendship despite differences

THANK you for the report on the death of retired Air Commodore “Pete” Henderson, OBE (Air Force News, February 28). There was another side of Pete not mentioned in the report.

I first met him when I commenced duties as chaplain at RAAF Base East Sale on September 18, 1961.

In our initial interview we had a few “differences of opinion”. Because I didn’t drink or smoke he asked, “How the hell do you expect to get to know the boys?” I replied, “Sir, give me three months and if you don’t think I’m getting to know the boys, you should carpet me right here.” We chuckled together and I left his office.

Three days later I entered the Officers’ Mess after work and Pete was talking to our three wing commanders, whom I had already met in their various sections. He paid for my lemon squash and told the wing commanders, “I have watched him like a cat watching a mouse and I haven’t a hope in hell of carpeting him – he knows more people on this base than I do.”

Our friendship deepened on August 15, 1962, when the aerobatic team The Red Sails crashed and we lost six of our top pilots. It was described as the greatest peace-time disaster in the history of the RAAF.

It was our duty to visit the young women who had lost their husbands. Over the next week we had to arrange Service funerals, and meet and accommodate visiting families and friends. Daily we worked hard and long together, appreciating each other.

Pete was posted to Darwin and when he arrived he discovered that it was changeover time for the base chaplain. He did not always have a happy relationship with chaplains. He knew Principal Air Chaplain Ray Russell and immediately rang Ray and said, “I don’t know what chaplain you are sending to Darwin, but don’t send anybody unless it’s George Ashworth.”

Your obituary made no mention of his wonderful wife, Jean. She was a tower of strength to Pete and was a great ally to me on those times when Pete differed violently with me.

Despite those differences, Pete and I were good friends and I had an officer commanding who supported his chaplain to the full.

Rev George Ashworth
SQNLDR (ret’d)
Jan Juc, Victoria

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