Back to school after 30 years

Instructor FLTLT Ian McLaren, a graduate of No. 47 Navigators course, shows the interior of a HS748 to WGCDR Steve Hart, who completed No. 9 AEO course, and (in background) previous CO SAN WGCDR Pete Kennedy (ret’d).

It has been a long time since RAAF Base East Sale has hosted a reunion of navigators and air electronic officers – 20 years at least – and longer still since members of No. 47 Navigator and No. 9 Air Electronic Officers courses trained together.

But time did not hinder the memories of those who attended a reunion at the base on the June long weekend, 30 years after they started their courses at the School of Air Navigation.

Eight of the 10 navigators and six of the seven AEOs who did the courses attended. Five members are still serving in the Air Force and two are in the Reserves, accumulating more than 170 years of service between them.

SAN’s CO in that era, Wing Commander Pete Kennedy (ret’d), and an ex-AEO instructor, Flight Lieutenant Graham Wade (ret’d), also attended.

Flight Lieutenants Bruce Peteresen and Ian McLaren, who were members of 47 Nav Course and work at SAN as instructors, provided their course mates with a nostalgic tour of the school, a HS748 in which they were trained, the cadets mess, and the only classroom left standing (now used as the golf clubhouse).

The official reunion dinner included a presentation of an 8mm film of the course graduation in 1975. The June 1975 edition of RAAF News noted that the graduation featured three “firsts” – the first time three aircrew categories graduated at the same time (No. 3 RAN Observer Course also graduated that day); the largest graduation since World War II; and the first time a son of a serving navigator graduated from the school in the same category.

That navigator was Graham Bentley, the course Dux and the most senior serving officer at the reunion. Air Commodore Bentley talked about the current and future capabilities of the Air Force and told of his experiences in the Middle East as the Australian Commander, including living in one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces without running water and sewerage.

Living off ration packs, he lost 17kg in his time in the MEAO. The reunion activities also featured a car rally through Gippsland, held to commemorate a rally the cadets organised 30 years before. Reunion organiser Group Captain George Sieniszkiewicz said the event “will remain in the memory of those attending for many years to come”.

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