Old boys recall Blue Duck days
13.01.2009
ANGELA CROMPTON, The Marlborough Express
On common ground: Former physical-education instructor Dave Karl, left and commanding officer Fred Tucker compare today's RNZAF facilities at Woodbourne with those in 1959
Young women in Blenheim were always on the look-out when a new group of Boy Entrants arrived at Woodbourne.
Known as the Blue Ducks because they always wore their Royal New Zealand Air Force regulation uniforms, the lads from all parts of the country were exciting new faces for local girls to dream about.
That was a memory of one wife, who joined 45 former Boy Entrants at their 50th anniversary in Blenheim at the weekend.
That was a memory of one wife, who joined 45 former Boy Entrants at their 50th anniversary in Blenheim at the weekend.
Identified in 2009 as the Golden Boys, the 13th group of Boy Entrants came again from all parts of the country to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their first day in the air force: January 9th, 1959.
Old friendships were rekindled, life stories compared and yarns exchanged about those long-ago days in the barracks.
Old friendships were rekindled, life stories compared and yarns exchanged about those long-ago days in the barracks.
Keith Meadows, now a civilian electronics technician at Woodbourne, initiated the reunion after meeting a former colleague and realising the anniversary was approaching.
A meet-and-greet at the Clubs of Marlborough on Friday evening was priceless, said Marie Shefford, wife of Golden Boy Marty Shefford, of Rotorua.
She watched the excitement on the men's faces as they recognised each other and old friendships were rekindled.
She watched the excitement on the men's faces as they recognised each other and old friendships were rekindled.
It was Saturday, however, before they caught up again with the guest of honour, their old Commanding Officer, Fred Tucker OBE DFC.
"I was the boss," Mr Tucker, 87, said at Woodbourne.
The man who earned citations for his actions in Kittyhawk and Corsair aeroplanes during World War II and for his Commanding-Officer services from 1956 to 1958 in Singapore during the Malayan Emergency, was probably a tough taskmaster when he started commanding the Boy Entrants at Woodbourne in 1959.
"It's a wonder they will actually talk to me," he said, grinning, on Saturday. He was pleased how they had turned out, however.
Other notable success stories were Denis Lill, who became an actor in Britain, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0510317/
Norman Clarke, an internationally acclaimed carver of Maori artefacts, http://www.bonecarving.co.nz/
John Hosie, eventually promoted to the RNZAF's top position, Air Vice-Marshal.
"It's vastly different now," Mr Tucker said of the Air Force as he followed everyone through the barracks to see the facilities used by present-day cadets.
Although the beds are still single and skinny, dividing screens now separate them.
Two caps one worn by men, the other by women sat on the pillow of a neatly pressed bed, and mirror-shiny black boots stood at attention on the floor.
"Integrity, teamwork and professionalism" remained the vital principles taught to men and women entering the Air Force, Warrant Officer Michael Henessy told the reunion participants.
Anxious to show that such strengths hadn't been forgotten, they helped each other to look their best for the official photo shoots.
Arranging themselves in their old Flight groups representing trades, technical work and non-technical trades the participants straightened their trouser cuffs, moved their shoulders back, tucked in their tummies and, in fitting military manner, obeyed the photographer's command: "Smi-i-i-i-le".
- The Marlborough Express
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WWII pilot dies seven decades after facing death off Bougainville
Kent Blechynden
WWII pilot and Group Captain Fred Tucker at his home in Karori in 2012.
A celebrated World War II pilot has died just eight days out from Anzac Day.
Captain Fred Tucker, OBE, a member of the RNZAF, was shot down in the sea off Bougainville in April 1944, then spent hours in the water thinking he was being circled by sharks.
He survived the incident, and the war, and then another seven decades.
Tucker died surrounded by family, on Friday in Wellington. He was 93, a three-decade air force veteran, who served in WWII then in Malaya in the late 1950s.
Son Greg Tucker said his father made each Anzac Day dawn service, where he would remember family and friends lost in war. For the past 15 years his children had taken him down.
This Anzac Day, health permitting, would have been no different.
The official cause of death was pneumonia but according to Greg Tucker, "it was really he just got old".
But it seemed likely he would still be represented at Saturday's dawn service by his family, who planned to go along with his impressive array of medals.
They include a military OBE from 1975, a Distinguished Flying Cross for air operations in Malaya in 1958, a 1945 Pacific Air Operations Medal, and others.
He signed up with the air force in August, 1941 to join World War II and did not retire from in till 1973 by when he was Group Captain and second in charge of the Defence Force.
He was 22 in April, 1944, when he led a formation of four aircraft in a low-level strafing attack against the Japanese defences at Kieta Harbour, on the northern coast of Bougainville and got shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
"At high speed I pulled up and out to sea in a zoom climb with oil and smoke obscuring my windscreen and vision," he recalled in 2012.
"My intention very clearly was not to land in Japanese territory and be captured with a one-way ticket to nowhere. My engine exploded and I bailed out."
He ended in the sea - where he faced further worries.
"The sea became rougher. After two or three hours of being teased by the fear that I was being circled by a shark I discovered on being forced closer to the small black triangle which was concerning me that the culprit was, indeed, a small floating log. I straddled it for the remainder of my swim."
After about four hours in the water, he was rescued by an American Catalina flying boat.
Group Captain Tucker will be farewelled at St Mary's Church in Karori at 11am on Wednesday.
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https://www.mags.school.nz/Story?Action=View&Story_id=8989
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Havelock artist and carver Norman Clark has died
FILE
Norman Clark working on a piece of art in his studio in the Marlborough Sounds.
Havelock artist and master carver Norman "Norm" Clark, 73, died unexpectedly on Monday morning.
Clark had exhibitions in New Zealand and around the world, including the United States, Germany and Britain.
An obituary will run in The Marlborough Express at a later date.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/your-marlborough/79618495/havelock-artist-and-carver-norman-clark-has-died
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