Ray Clarke Looks Back (continued)

The major said to the captain "get me four men and a truck at the Officers' Mess at 1500 hours". The captain covering his rump said to the lieutenant "get me six men and a truck at the Officers' Mess at 1445 hours". The Lieutenant being an ambitious career soldier said to the sergeant major "Sar' Major, kindly get me eight men and a truck at the Officers' Mess at 1430 hours". The sergeant major, an old soldier of 25 years standing who won't be caught out, said not unexpectedly to the sergeant "Sergeant, get me 10 men and two trucks at the Officers' Mess no later than 1415 hours ". And so on goes the story; get the picture, four trucks and 30 men later.

Being an ex-serviceman, I was used to Service idiosyncrasies and the chain of command system which normally ensures that there is a place for everything and everything is in its place. By sheer weight of numbers, the installation was finished in smart time. The RAAF 'techs' proved to be neat and skilful wiremen.

In June 1976 I installed a WF3 radar at Sydney Airport; it stays in my memory only because of the fact that it rained through the entire installation.

In September 1976 I went to Launceston to relocate the WF2 radar, working with Sid Owen and Kim Briggs. Sid was ex-Installation Section for a short period of time and apart from putting the WF44 radar in at Mackay did quite a few AWSs.

My last major installation was at Mount Stuart in October 1976 with the remoting of the WF44 radar via microwave to Townsville. The installation team included the late Bob West, Bruce Duck, Carl Keswick, Bernie Keogh (now, in 1998, RMO South Australia) and included the local boys Horrie Down and Jack Tait who were both very helpful and skilful 'techs'. The OIC J. J. McGann and his staff excelled themselves in helping the installation team.

When Adrian Porter and Bob Lazdins came into the Installation Section in early 1977 I found myself more and more office bound in Melbourne. This suited me since, by that time, I'd really had enough travelling. My family life had suffered over the years, however, this was my only regret as I had met a variety of people and travelled to places that I would otherwise probably not have seen.

I resigned from the Bureau in March 1979 after nearly 20 years of service, and returned to my home state of Queensland.

Bureau of Meteorology