Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 24, 2006 16:28:44 GMT 12
From the Manawatu Standard via Scoop
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3630683a6502,00.html
Veteran marks 50 years among the clouds
07 April 2006
By HELEN HARVEY
When Bill Cowan joined the Air Force in 1956 it was full of airmen who had seen action in World War II.
"They had a very direct, gung-ho approach to life. You knew when you were skating on thin ice and if the ice cracked, you fell through. They were excellent guys."
Yesterday Mr Cowan was invited to a morning tea that turned out to be a surprise celebration for him.
On May 1, he will have been in the Air Force for 50 years. He has been based at Ohakea since 1977.
He left the RNZAF as a Warrant Officer in the early 1990s, but then came back as a civilian.
When he first joined up at 17, he went to Wigram and went on an air crew course - 18 months later he was in Fiji.
"It was a great place to be."
He spent two-and-half years flying around the Pacific as crew on a Sunderland, a flying boat.
He returned to New Zealand for a couple of years before heading off to Changi in Singapore.
"At that time there was what they called the Indonesian Confrontation, a dirty little war down in Borneo."
He was crew on a Bristol freighter, which would fly through the jungle at 250 feet and drop supplies to the Kiwi soldiers.
They were pretty accurate, he said.
"We were the best out of all air forces in the Far East. The RAF were pretty good, but they weren't as good as our boys."
He was based at Kuching in Sarawak. It was "interesting . . . dangerous. The Indonesians took potshots at us".
And the Americans took potshots at him while he was flying over Vietnam.
He would fly from Singapore to Saigon, land with medical supplies, then fly back.
"We flew through artillery barrage once, which was not very helpful."
The Americans were on the other end of the guns, but it wasn't their fault, he said.
"It was a combination of air-traffic control and us being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Flying across Vietnam, he would see aircraft bombing ground targets and there was lots of chatter on the radio. There were hundreds of aircraft around, he said.
Mr Cowan has been a plane spotter since he was three, he said.
He grew up in Okoia, just out of Wanganui, and during the war years there were always planes flying around, he said. "A lot of boys my vintage are keen on aircraft."
And after 50 years messing about in planes, he is not finished yet. "I've got a couple of years to go on my contract. I might call it quits then."
www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3630683a6502,00.html
Veteran marks 50 years among the clouds
07 April 2006
By HELEN HARVEY
When Bill Cowan joined the Air Force in 1956 it was full of airmen who had seen action in World War II.
"They had a very direct, gung-ho approach to life. You knew when you were skating on thin ice and if the ice cracked, you fell through. They were excellent guys."
Yesterday Mr Cowan was invited to a morning tea that turned out to be a surprise celebration for him.
On May 1, he will have been in the Air Force for 50 years. He has been based at Ohakea since 1977.
He left the RNZAF as a Warrant Officer in the early 1990s, but then came back as a civilian.
When he first joined up at 17, he went to Wigram and went on an air crew course - 18 months later he was in Fiji.
"It was a great place to be."
He spent two-and-half years flying around the Pacific as crew on a Sunderland, a flying boat.
He returned to New Zealand for a couple of years before heading off to Changi in Singapore.
"At that time there was what they called the Indonesian Confrontation, a dirty little war down in Borneo."
He was crew on a Bristol freighter, which would fly through the jungle at 250 feet and drop supplies to the Kiwi soldiers.
They were pretty accurate, he said.
"We were the best out of all air forces in the Far East. The RAF were pretty good, but they weren't as good as our boys."
He was based at Kuching in Sarawak. It was "interesting . . . dangerous. The Indonesians took potshots at us".
And the Americans took potshots at him while he was flying over Vietnam.
He would fly from Singapore to Saigon, land with medical supplies, then fly back.
"We flew through artillery barrage once, which was not very helpful."
The Americans were on the other end of the guns, but it wasn't their fault, he said.
"It was a combination of air-traffic control and us being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Flying across Vietnam, he would see aircraft bombing ground targets and there was lots of chatter on the radio. There were hundreds of aircraft around, he said.
Mr Cowan has been a plane spotter since he was three, he said.
He grew up in Okoia, just out of Wanganui, and during the war years there were always planes flying around, he said. "A lot of boys my vintage are keen on aircraft."
And after 50 years messing about in planes, he is not finished yet. "I've got a couple of years to go on my contract. I might call it quits then."
