Diary of a Pilot: Above and Beyond

Like many veterans of many wars, I have seldom told of my combat/overseas experiences and encounters. I flew in combat as a 20yo fighter pilot during the Korean War in 1953 and as a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War in 1969. During my nineteen years in the Royal Australian Air Force I also flew C130 transport operations during the Malayan Emergency, the Indonesian confrontation and the Viet Nam War, including one circumnavigation of the planet.


The following 35 short stories relate some of the more memorable occurrences that I experienced during my 52 years as an aviator. I logged 5,000 hours in aeroplanes and 11,000 in helicopters I have started with the first dozen from Vietnam because I had an inexplicable urge to write something about that disturbed time. So that was the beginning of this return to the memories, some bad but mostly good, of my flying life.