4 Fd Regt SVN 'Old Boys' Newsletter - July 2006 Edition

4 Field Regiment (SVN) Association (aka 4 th Field Regt Old Boys) Newsletter No 13. July 2006 5 If your address details are not correct please advise us of any changes The David Anderson Story. After a few years working in an office and discovering it wasn't for me, I applied for a short Service Commission in the British Army. Six months intensive training in Aldershot and two months corps training at Larkhill was sufficient to see me posted to 26 Fd Regt RA in Germany, where I stayed for four years. The regiment was equipped wit Abbot self propelled 105mm guns . In those days the threat was from the east and all our exercises were based on strategic withdrawals in the face of the a real Soviet threat. Towards the end of 1968, I applied to transfer my Commission to the Australian Army and after the obligatory sessions before an interview board, at Australia House in London, I was on my way to Lavarack Barracks in Townsville for my posting to 4Fd Regt RAA. I arrived in October 1968. Suffice to say, my time with 4 Fd Regt was memorable and offered the opportunity to develop a number of lasting friendships. We were blessed with a great leadership team (Forward and Donkin) and a good number of talented and first rate people. After retuning from SVN I was posted to 131 Div Loc Bty in Holsworthy where I became Battery Captain. Peacetime soldering didn't particularly appeal , so in mid 1973 I resigned my Commission and started to look for work in Sydney. I ended up working with Alcan Australian for almost 20 years, although my time with them was broken for about 3 years when I tried my luck in WA. My last job with Alcan was managing the aluminium extrusion business in Victoria – this covered production plants in Melbourne and Geelong and servicing sales in Victoria, Tasmania, SA and WA. My wife Ann and I then bought a franchise covering WA and SA, however this didn't meet our expectations so I worked for a little over two years with the WA state Government and finally retired in 2001. Or so I thought! After a coup le of years travelling with little or no focus to our lives, Ann and I purchased a macadamia nut farm in Northern Rivers Region of NSW. We are now almost full-time working on the farm which has nearly 3,000 three and is just t about the right size for two people to manage. Denis and Marg Byrne also grow macas and are within sight of our farm across the valley. My first marriage produced two sons, both or whom are in Sydney(they're now 28 & 30) whilst my second marriage to Ann came with tow ready-made children both now married - on n Brisbane and the other in country WA. Ex 4 Fd Regt people I've seen over the past couple off years include Dennis Byrne (weekly!), Keith Hall, Bryan Slattery, Brian Swift, Syd Farrow, Lance Grimstone, Harry Dainton and others I may have forgotten about. Travellers passing through northern NSW are welcome to call in (with a bit of early warning!) to see us at :Rosebank Farm, 552 Rosebank NSW. Tele 02 6688 2280 or email rosebank-farm@bigpond.com Received this from Lance Bombardier Ray King, 106 Bty 4 Field Regiment. “Musings about a rough night on the job and the alarming lack of quality management” Thanks to my old mate roger Hall, who went a bit too far up the sharp end ,and caught one as a ploy for some well learned R&R, I quickly learned that joining the Artillery for its safety behind earth mounds, miles of barbed wire, 6 field guns and working underground in a fortified command post was a furphy that only a naive natio could've believed. My first assignment as a Forward Observer was to FSB Bridgid, that amazing place in the coastal dunes, just along from the notorious Long Hai mountains.