For my brother.

[mrclark303]

Well the road has finally ended it's been nearly 2 years in the making to get my brothers awards for his service in the RAAF.
Barry served from 28/05/1964 till 08/07/1990 and was in line to start a new career in Perth with QANTAS as an engine fitter as that was his trade all that time in the RAAF.
He worked at Pearce for a time and he took me on duty crews with him as I was only @9-10 so around 66-67 getting to sit in Vampires & C130's eye opening stuff for me.

He was at Pearce for a fair while then the RAAF transferred him to Amberly where he worked on The Pig (FIII) and the Hornet was just coming into service I think.
Barry knew how to tweak the system and stayed there for 8 years before coming back to Pearce he liked Qld.
In this time Barry got promoted to Flt Sgt to see out his service but sadly my brother never made it to his demob date.
He passed away on his wife's birthday the night prior to his demob leaving a widow and 2 very young toddler daughters he was only 43 and I still miss him very much.

They went for tea with my B/In law and Barry's best mate Laurie and when they came home to have a few more ales he turned as he opened a king brown.
Saying to them "I guess I better get you two b*stards a drink then." those were his last words he had a heart attack and died on the spot could not be revived however they both tried. (Left descending artery a 100% non survivable H/Attack)

My sister inlaw and his grown daughters have no clue this has been bubbling along in the background and I have been fretting waiting on the National medal to turn up.
As it is not issued by the ADF but by Government House when they are ready so you just have to wait till then, I did ring up as the ADF chap helped me. (Thx Jason)
After my H/Attack 13/09/20 (Rt descending artery) I felt I was on borrowed time it hit me out of the blue with me ending up on the Flying Doctor plane to Perth!
So I was worried I would miss the opportunity to present these awards to her and his daughters as they have no idea about the awards by the ADF.

For you Barry so your wife and two daughters can feel proud of your achievements whilst in service with the RAAF.
Your brother

Pic #1 ~ ADF Defence Medal 2 clasps, National Medal.
Pic #2 ~ Barry very early in his career with SLR in tow.
Pic #3 ~ Leaning against Macchi 3rd from left not sure if it's Pearce or Amberly, Caribou in the background.
Pic #4 ~ Guard of honor at Karrakatta cemetery where he was interred.(I'm the green shirted one way in the background)
Pic #5 ~ 2 Macchi's taking off or landing prior/after to perform/ing the missing man formation over the cemetery as we lowered his coffin into the ground.
Which to me as I watched it meant alot, I know it is a very revered thing to have performed especially for ground crew.
Either 04 or 08 was it's last flight before retirement pretty sure he would have worked on both sad fact is he beat it to retirement.

Thanks chaps bit of a long one but it was a journey.
CINDERS

So sorry Ron, that's really tragic mate.