For my brother.

[CINDERS]

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

[Ovidio]

Too young to go… What a pity. My most heartfelt condolences chap

[browningautorifle]

Well done on the medals, a long road complete.

[fjruple]

Cinders-- I did the same thing for late father-in-law who served in the Pacific. He was de-mobilized so quickly he did not want to wait around for his medals. He just wanted to get home start his family. We got to talking about his military experiences and said he never received the metals he was entitled to. I got a hold of a copy of his DD214 and made arrangements for his metals. He did get them before he passed on. I even had them placed in a shadow box for him to display in his home. He would show them off to his follow veteran friends. Every time I visited him he would talk about his medals.

[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.

[Surpmil]

Brutal Cinders. Allow me to suggest that you write down your memories and insights on your brother for his daughters. Such a document will be of interest to your brother's future grandchildren as well I expect. Your insights are different from his wife's...

Now multiply such tragedies by a few million and we begin to get the measure of what war really is.

[CINDERS]

My father lost one of his brothers on the Portsmouth docks in WWII the Luftwaffe were engaged in attacking the port, my dad's brother (who was a dock worker) and his mate were making their way to the air raid shelter it is unknown why they were not already there perhaps finishing a job or down a ship's hold.
Anyhow as they were making a bee line for the shelter a large capacity bomb landed right on them his mate afterwards they apparently found enough of him to positively identify him but of my father's brother nothing not even a scrap was found it totally vaporised him into atoms.

Now you may find this a bit fanciful a person could just be completely and utterly pulverised by the force of an explosion so I will reiterate some examples that is in the book Strike From The Sky By Alexander McKee which I have read twice.
This covers the battle of Britain but also includes the Luftwaffe bombings of the factories and in some instances details the fatal injuries of some of the workers sustained from the bomb explosions;

1. A girl was seated at a machine on a stool, of her there was nothing remaining above her hips the top of her body completely severed as if by shears yet the stockings on her legs unmarked.
2. Another girl also seated at a machine looked just like a life like mannequin her clothes untouched yet she was dead all of her internal organs shattered by the force of the explosion.
3. A man of whom they only found his severed head with the brain completely gone with a hole in the top of his head with one being able to look clearly down through the head to the ground.

These are some examples of the forces high explosives permeate in a closed environment where passageways and internal structures funnel and disperse the devastating blast, so yeah if they say it atomised a human being then it certainly can does not have to be nuclear to do it.

[Sapper740]

Cinders, I've been hesitant to post to your thread as I'm still mourning the death of one of my older brothers and the pain is still there. Douglas passed away from Mesothelioma likely caused by the years he worked as a plumber/pipefitter handling asbestos insulation. Dying of Mesothelioma is not a pleasant death...I'll leave that there. Your brother passed quickly having a good time with friends and family so I hope that helped in at least some small to way ease the pain of his death, if at all. Good on ya for fighting to get your brother's well deserved awards as a way to honor him. We'll all be reunited with family eventually in Heaven so remember that in times when the pain of a loved one's passing is felt.

[CINDERS]

Sorry for your loss Sapper I experienced something along those lines with my father who had pancreatic cancer the most painful of all of them it took 12 months for dad who when he passed weighed only 40 kilogrammes.
Just try to remember the good times Sapper my brother and I always had spirited talks on most wars he wanted to go to VN to be a door gunner but the RAAF kept him at what he did best I suppose repair jet engines.
Remember them for who they were and not how they ended up.

[Surpmil]

This fellow had mesothelioma I understand. Sorry it's too late for your brother Sapper, but might help someone else.

I note that he was consuming the phytoplankton rather than the product made from it.