You may not think you’ve had an extraordinary life, but here at Frank and Earnest, we believe everyone’s life is quite extraordinary…
In our new section, called My extraordinary life, we’ll write about great Australians everywhere and how their lives have unfolded. We believe there are amazing stories which have never been told – unsung heroes who may never have been applauded. So if you – or someone you know – has a story to tell, drop us a line. It’s about time we heard these stories.
We kick off My extraordinary life with someone many of you may know – Les Armstrong CSC OAM – currently the president of the Association of Residents Queensland Retirement Villages.
From humble beginnings, Les has achieved a great deal culminating in being awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in January of this year. See our story earlier here.
Les was born in Mildura, Victoria, in 1938 and at the tender age of 14, his father said to him he had a choice of three vocations: the first was as an aircraft apprentice with TAA; the second was as a porter at Flinders Street railway station; and the third was as an aircraft apprentice with the RAAF.
“Luckily for me, the airforce answered first and for me, that was the best of the three,” says Les. “We went to Wagga to commence three years apprentice training.”
Les left home at the age of 15 to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). As he says, he was a member of the RAAF “for 43 years, six months and two days.”
In those days, signing up with the RAAF was a big commitment because after three years training, 12 years of service was required. Luckily for Les, he loved working with the RAAF so he wasn’t counting the days. In fact, towards the end of his time with the RAAF, Les had been promoted through the ranks to Group Captain (equivalent to a Colonel in the army). His last primary appointment was as senior maintenance staff officer at operational command, Glenbrook NSW. In this role he was in charge of the maintenance of the entire airforce’s fleet of almost 3000 aircraft – no small feat!
Restoring World War II aircraft
At this time, Les also led the restoration of World War II aircraft, recovering them from New Guinea and then reinstating them to static display standard for the RAAF museums. “This was a particularly satisfying part of the job,”
he says. “The team comprising 20 volunteers restored a Catalina for display at Point Cook in Victoria as well as two Boston bombers – one is now on display at Amberley air force base in Queensland and the other is on its way back to New Guinea, the original recovery site. We also sent a Japanese Zero to Wagga – we did around 16 aircraft in all,” he adds.
During his time with the RAAF, Les served on the Malay Peninsular in the Malay/Thai border conflict. In 1968 he was based in Phan Rang in Vietnam for active service and in 1981-82 he served in Malaysia in the Indonesian confrontation. “All of these were active service where we carried out peacekeeping activities, assisting the local defence forces,” he says.
“I was a the commanding officer of the Explosives Ordinance Disposal Unit of the RAAF which specialised in rendering safe procedures for Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) safe. We defuzed dozens of bombs in the field, particularly in Malaysia and Vietnam.
When asked if that was dangerous work, Les brushes off the suggestion and makes it sound as if dismantling bombs is all in a day’s work: “Well, you know the bomb is not impact-sensitive because it’s dropped out of a plane and it hasn’t detonated. So the first thing you have to do is check to see if the timer is still ticking…”
Many aspects of this extraordinary life
Luckily for Les, none of the bombs exploded at the wrong time and in 1961 he married Vi and they later had two children, Kim and Brad. Les now has five grand children and three great grandchildren.
“We were married for 51 years, six months and two days,” says Les fondly.
But there are many more aspects of this amazing man’s life. In 1965, 1966 and 1967 Les won the Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysian Open Squash Championships. So he has had a great sporting life as well.
Retirement village life
He left the RAAF when he was 60 in 1998 and after moving into a retirement village he joined the Association of Residents Queensland Retirement Villages (ARQRV) as a committee member and secretary. Shortly after he took over from Phil Phillips and became the president of the Association for eight years. In September of this year, he will stand down as president but remain a passionate member of the committee.
In those eight years, Les and his committee achieved a great deal:”The biggest thing we’ve managed to achieve is a much better relationship between the operators and the residents,” he says.
“We’ve made a large contribution to a major rewrite of the Retirement Villages Act and 33 our our 39 recommendations are being adopted. We’ve worked closely on budget development and achieved a great deal,” he adds.
Les also states he is extremely proud of building the financial stability of the Association: “We can afford to get advice and to take disputes to the tribunal if we ever need to. We are financially well set up in comparison to the other retirement village associations around Australia. You need money to do some things so it’s good to get to this point where the money’s there if we need it.”
Awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross
When Les was in the RAAF he was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross for service to engineering and weapons. He now gets to wear this alongside the medal of the Order of Australia which he received this year on Australia Day, for services to the aged community.
“I was particularly pleased with the Conspicuous Service Cross because they don’t give many of them out. Of course, the OAM is quite significant also,” Les says.
With everything he has achieved in his life, Les doesn’t hesitate when asked what he feels has been his greatest achievement:”The thing I’ve most enjoyed is being able to keep the family together all those years while I was in the air force. We used to get shifted every two years and we had to keep the family together. But that family life is worth it and it has been the highlight of my life.”
