4 Field Regiment (SVN) 'Old Boys' Newsletter - September 2014 Edition

1 4 TH FIELD REGIMENT (SVN) ASSOCIATION AKA 4TH FIELD REGT OLD BOYS NEWSLETTER NO 25 – SEPTEMBER 2014 Please note new address and home phone number: Correspondence to: Peter Bruce, PO Box 293, Lake Cathie, NSW 2445 Email: pjbruce8@bigpond.net.au Tele: 02 6585 7342 Mobile: 0419 349 317 G’day to all, I just had an email from Bo Plenty and he has prompted me to extract the digit and put pen to paper – so to speak – and get a newsletter out. I suppose a lot has happened but you will have to put up with mainly my version of events. There is very little correspondence in to report although I do get a lot of links via email. I will put in what I have and you can sort out what links you wish to follow. I also thought I would send this as a hard copy to all on the mailing list as it contains an important announcement about a possible get together in Melbourne in 2016 – yes, 2016 not 15. A couple of items I missed in the last edition so have included those as well. Again, I would ask all those who have email addresses to let me know so I can pass on bits and pieces as they turn up. I don’t forward jokes and the likes and will only forward something if I believe it is important for the majority of our members. Speaking of members and memberships, I believe we have enough in the kitty for the time being to cover postage and any printing costs etc. Last time I got one printed at Legacy and Syd Farrow has offered his RSL Sub Branch might be able to print one too. Wherever we get it done I am sure we can cover costs for the time being. Postage of course is the killer thus the call for as many email addresses as possible. Gabby Hayes is still our keeper of the keys and at our last count we had $2083.90 in the working account and just over $5k in a term deposit which Gabby has just rolled over for us. Back up to ANZAC Day this year and I had a pretty quite one. I had a Legacy duty to attend to and marched in Port Macquarie. Did the Dawn Service in Laurieton where a very large crowd was in attendance. In Port Macquarie I caught up with Kev Lakey who is VP and Secretary of the RSL Sub Branch there. His son who was visiting from Darwin joined him in the march. Up in Brisbane a few of the boys got together and by all reports had a great time. At lunch they were discussing how many had not caught up with PJ Smith for some time and a plot was hatched to hold a reunion in Melbourne in 2016. PJ is amongst other things, the head of appeals in Victoria for the RSL and ANZAC Day is a big day for him. Anyway, the decision was that if he can’t get to us, we will go to him. Details of the planned event appear later. We had our place at Kendall on the market at that stage and I was busy trying to down size in preparation for a move to our current loc. The sale eventually went through and Susie and I moved from our acreage in Kendall to an over 50s lifestyle resort. Anyone interested can have a look at www.oceanclubresort.com.au We moved in on the 2 nd of June and so far all is going great guns. Susie is actually away in Mexico at the moment so I can have the music as loud as I want – most of the time. Mick Long, I think you approve of some of my selections. In October we attended the first National Gunner Dinner held in Caloundra. It was great to see many old familiar faces. It started on the Friday night at the big Caloundra RSL Club and there were so many faces old and new to meet and greet. Swifty had sent me a message saying he was there and where to meet him but by the time PJ Smith and me got through the crowd at the entrance I think he had gone. Others I ran into were Dave Alderton who I had not seen for many years: Bo Plenty, Alan Foley, Tom Beynon, Tim Ford, Brain Maurer, to name just a few. You can imagine Tom’s hearing aid working overtime in the noise. It was a great chance to catch up although prolonged conversation was nearly impossible. After dinner I got caught up with a few old mates and then caught a cab back to our motel. What happened after that will be the subject of a chapter in a book one day. Suffice to say, I survived but 2.0am is not the best time to be touring the back streets of Caloundra.