Bases begin hearing ‘Cooee’

By Andrew Stackpool

CHIEF of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd is jumping in to meet the people he leads.

During the last week of July, he toured RAAF Bases East Sale and Wagga on his first visit to bases as CAF.

During his visit to East Sale, he addressed a parade of uniformed personnel as well as several civilians who attended.

Before departing, he visited No. 32 Squadron, the School of Air Navigation and Air Traffic Control, and met several base personnel at an informal lunch at the Sergeants’ Mess.

His visit to Wagga started with a tower jump by the base PTIs.

“Next time I am in Wagga I plan to do one of these,” he said.

During the visit, Air Marshal Shepherd spoke to the base airmen and airwomen at their Mess and then met with the
officers and NCOS at the officers’ Mess.

He was particularly impressed with two aspects of Wagga’s activities, the RAAF School of Technical Training and the Internet Café.

“The level of technical training provided by Air Force in conjunction with the Aerospace Training Centre of Excellence is a totally integrated team and a very good model for us all,” he said.

The Internet Café is the “child” of a small team of Air Force and CSIG personnel led by the Base Commander, Wing Commander Graeme Wren. They recognised the importance of the Internet in modern daily lives and knew that Internet access was not possible in the blocks.

The team established the café where members could access the Internet and use it as a recreational facility. It is self-managed by the duty course.

“This initiative has been a great boost for morale on the base and I applaud the team for making it possible,” Air Marshal Shepherd said.

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