Vehicle tests
BUSHMASTER vehicles have successfully passed the final stage of reliability tests and will be delivered to Airfield Defence Guards next year.

Defence Minister Robert Hill said the milestone meant there was only one step left before production of the fleet could begin at ADI’s Bendigo facility.

The final acceptance test is due to be completed this month. The first of the 299 Bushmaster vehicles are due to be delivered to the ADGs and the Army’s 7th Brigade in Brisbane from next May.

Vet dies
A WITNESS to the end of World War I flying ace the Red Baron died late last month aged 106. Sergeant Ted Smout, of Brisbane, was Australia’s oldest Great War veteran.

He had been one of the first on the spot when Baron Von Richtofen was shot down by Australian machine gun fire. “I admired his fine leather knee boots, but resisted the temptation to souvenir them, or the Iron Cross he was wearing on a chain around his neck,” he recalled.

Mr Smout was awarded an OAM in 1978, and was honoured by the French government with the Chevalier Legion d’Honneur.

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