An Air Force story from Malaya
GEMLIFE MAROOCHY QUAYS RESIDENT AND VETERAN OF THE ROYAL AUSTALIAN AIR FORCE, ALAN KROGH, SHARES HIS TOUR OF DUTY EXPERIENCE AS A WARRANT OFFICER.
Alan joined the RAAF in May 1960 and completed 22 years of service, including two tours of duty in Malaya, where he took his family with him both times.
When he and Lorrie, his wife of 61 years, first arrived in Indonesia in 1964, they had two boys in tow and a bag packed.
“We always had to have a bag packed and ready to go at all times in case we needed to urgently evacuate the women and children,” Alan said.
“The Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation (also known as the Borneo confrontation) was an armed conflict between 1963 and 1966 and we arrived right in the middle of it.”
The conflict was resolved peacefully and resulted in the creation of the state of Malaysia from the Federation of Malaya.
Alan, Lorrie, and their children returned for a second time in 1974, with Alan taking up his post in the precision measuring equipment laboratory (PMEL), while Lorrie cared for their children.
“By the time we returned our family had grown, and not only did we have our two boys, but we also had our little girl by then, so the kids grew up seeing a true Air Force lifestyle and loved it,” Lorrie said.
“The Vietnam War was still going in 1974 but we weren’t involved anymore, so apart from sending our aircraft over there, as a PMEL I tested the air equipment the pilots and soldiers used onboard,” Alan said.
As part of ground crew, Alan didn’t see much of the fighting, to Lorrie’s relief, but she does recall one frightening encounter.
“The scariest experience for us was when we had a tiger come through camp,” said Lorrie. “Alan was on an exercise where they found tiger tracks, and everyone was given their rifles back to guard the aircraft.
“The strange part was that the defence guards, who should have been taking care of it, locked their dogs up because they didn’t want them to be eaten and left us to take care of the job instead!”
They eventually returned to Australia and built a new life with their children on a farm of 42 acres. Alan proudly notes that started what is now three generations of men in service.
“My son and my grandson followed me into the Australian Defence Force,” he said.
“I served 22 years in the RAAF, my son served nine, and now my grandson is in the Navy, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”