By
AB Neil Richards
Volume
48, No. 4, March 23, 2006
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CAF
AIRMSHL Geoff Shepherd joins ACM Sir Neville McNamara as
he signs copies of his autobiography The Quiet Man at the
book’s launch at the Australian War Memorial.
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Photo
by AB Neil Richards
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The
C-17 has a crew of two pilots and one loadmaster
and can carry up to 102 troops, 54 ambulatory
patients and attendants and more than 76,000
kilos of cargo.
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It
can take off and land on runways as short as
900m and as narrow as 30m wide.
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It
has a wingspan of 51m, a length of 53m and a
height of 16m.
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It
can fly up to 13,000m high at a speed of up
800km/h and has an unlimited range with in-flight
refuelling.
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THE
autobiography of former Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal
Sir Neville McNamara, was a “book that needed to be written”.
That was the assessment of Chief of Air Force AIRMSHL Geoff Shepherd
who launched the book, The Quiet Man, at the Australian War Memorial
on March 7.
“To say that this is a book that you will find hard to put
down may seem a hackneyed description these days, but I assure
you that is what you will find once you start reading,” AIRMSHL
Shepherd said.
“The Quiet Man” was a year-long labour of love for Sir
Neville, who “never really set out to produce a book”,
but was urged on by his family to commit something to paper.
“I find it rewarding in a sense to have had the opportunity
to collect all my thoughts and what I’ve done in the 42 and
a half years [of service] … I’m pleased to have the
record there,” he said.
Sir Neville was CDF from 1982-1984 and was the first Air Force
officer to command the ADF and the second Australian to achieve
four-star rank in the Air Force.
In his early years, he flew B-25 Mitchells with the US Army Air
Corps’ 13 Bomb Squadron in New Guinea and then later converted
to Kittyhawk fighters and saw action in Morotai, Dutch East Indies
and Tarakan.
During the Korean War he flew Meteors in the final weeks before
the cease-fire in July 1953. In Vietnam, the then AIRCDRE McNamara
served as the last commander of RAAF forces in theatre, flying
both Caribou aircraft and Iroquois helicopters.
When Sir Neville retired as CDF in 1984, AIR FORCE News headlined
its story “The quiet man says farewell”.
It made a catchy title for his book which has been created under
the Office of Air Force History’s oral history program.
The Quiet Man retails for $40.00 and is
available at http://www.raaf.gov.au/airpower
or via email at airpower@defence.gov.au
