RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA L I A I SON L ETTER – 2024 – 2025 E D I T I ON C ANNON BALL S UP PLEMENT 143 support of 1 RAR (replaced by 6 RAR), 1 RNZIR, the Malaysian Staff College, and eventually a British battalion. As well as their own ammunition allocation they also had the ammunition of the supported units to expend meaning that they were on the range or on exercise for about 2 weeks every month. Despite this the battery organized a number of other activities such as mounted and dismounted parades, gymkhanas, and musical rides as well as fielding winning rugby, Australian rules, and tennis teams in the various Commonwealth and national military competitions. It also participated in Exercise Bersatu Padu the first Five Power (Note: the FPDA was not formalized until 1 November 1971) divisional exercise held in Malaysia in mid- 191970 engaging the armed forces of Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia. The Battery provided the BC and forward observer parties for both the Australian and NZ battalions. For variety, the battery also spent a month in late 1971 on airfield defence duties at the RAAF Air Base, Butterworth. And, a small team, led by Lieutenant Bob Lowry, undertook Exercise Jaywick in Indonesian waters in four two-man kayaks that they built themselves supported by the GOC Far East Land Force’s launch, Uriah Heep. They retraced the route taken by the commando operation of the same name which sank several Japanese ships in Singapore harbour in 1943. The Australian component commander thought the latter activity too dangerous, but the GOC eventually prevailed. Neville then returned to Australia on promotion to assume staff and later command duties in Perth, WA (1972-1976) as it transitioned from geographic to functional command arrangements. He became the first commander of the 5th Military District (Western Australia) on 1 November 1973. The end of his sojourn in the West was also a watershed for the family. His two daughters Kim and Catherine, both born in Accra, Ghana, married and left the family home and Bruce, born in the UK, would remain at boarding school in Perth for his final years at school. This left only [Grab your reader’s attention with a great quote from the document or use this space to emphasize a key point. To place this text box anywhere on the page, just drag it.] Mark, born in Perth, at home when the next posting came along. This was staff officer appointments in the Personnel Branch in Army Office, Canberra 1977-1978. In 1978 Army nominated him for promotion and appointment as chief of defence protocol but the Secretary of Defence, Sir Arthur Tange, rejected his appointment because of his South African connections. Opposition to apartheid was mounting and it was seemingly not politic to appoint someone with remnants of a South African accent to such a role. However, he was subsequently promoted colonel to command 6 Field Force Group/6 MD Tasmania 1979-80. The highlight of this appointment was provision on the guard of honour and other Defence support to the visit by the Queen and Prince Phillip in 1981. He was then appointed to command the Defence Support Group, Puckapunyal, 1981-1982. Effectively this entailed being the mayor of a largely self-contained army community and the Colonel Neville Gair COMD 6 MD (Tasmania) with his son.