This is a story fi led by Neil from Afghanistan which was published in the November 2012 edition of the
Northern Services Courier
T
HE Tiger Moth buzzed
low overhead before
making a perfect landing on
a ridge-top paddock the size
of a couple of rugby fi elds.
Along with 125 other offi cer cadets,
I’d been marched up to receive a
lecture on the Army Aviation Corps.
I was there because I had been
conscripted in February, 1967 and,
after 17 days as a recruit at the 3rd
Training Battalion at Singleton,
selected to attend the Offi cer
Training Unit at Scheyville, near
Windsor, in New South Wales.
The unit was specifi cally
designed to train selected National
Servicemen as infantry platoon
commanders via an intensive,
demanding 22-week course.
Graduating young offi cers had a
good chance of being deployed on
operations to Vietnam because the
Royal Military College at Duntroon
and the Offi cer Cadet School at
Portsea could not produce enough
offi cers to meet the demands
of a rapid ly expanding Army
during the days of conscription.
The Tiger Moth taxied right
up to us before the engine was
cut and the pilot stepped out ...
resplendent in jungle greens
and wearing a white scarf.
“Gentlemen, I am CAPT Tony
Hammett and I’m here to
talk to you about the Army
Aviation Corps,” he said.
All of us gobsmacked offi cer
cadets immediately wanted
to be posted to Aviation.
During the next three
months I got to know Tony
Hammett reasonably well.
He had competed in the 1960
Olympic Games in the pentathlon.
Once he found out I came from a
cattle station and could ride a horse,
we would go riding through the hills
near Scheyville on weekend leave.
On graduation, I was posted
to 1RAR at Holdsworthy, a
2nd Lieutenant (probationary)
and platoon commander in A
Company. Shortly after, MAJ Tony
Hammett arrived and assumed
command of D Company.
I served with Tony Hammett in
Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.
During our time in Terendak
Garrison, near Malacca, in
Malaysia, Tony and I were members
of the Battalion’s pistol shooting
team, and we also represented
the 28 Commonwealth Brigade.
In 1970, while we were in
Singapore, my wife, Lyn, had
our second child, Maree, and Lyn
Hammett gave birth to their fi rst
and only child, James (Jamie or Jim).
I maintained contact
with the Hammetts.
Jim joined the Army on November
23 (the RAR’s birthday) 1988 and
was posted to D Company, 1RAR as
a private – his father’s old company.
He also served as the handler
to the Battalion’s Shetland pony
mascot, Septimus Secundus.
Jim was selected to attend the
18-month offi cer course at the Royal
Military College in July, 1995.
On graduation in December
1996, he was allocated to the
Infantry Corps and was posted
as a Platoon Commander of 9
Platoon C Company 2RAR.
In 2006, Jim was posted as the OC
A Company in 1RAR, the company
in which I had served in Vietnam.
He led this company on operations
in Timor- Leste in 2006 and shortly
after returning to Australia he
led his company into Tonga.
While attending the Australian
Command and Staff College in
2008, MAJ Hammett and a group
of other students visited Vietnam,
and on May 12, managed to visit
the actual site of the Battle of
CORAL - exactly 40 years after
the battle in which his father
and I had fought for six weeks.
Unfortunately, Tony Hammett
was killed in an aircraft accident
in 2002, not long after he had
retired from the Army.
Bearing in mind our long
association, it should have been no
surprise to me when, on visiting
Afghanistan last month, the fi rst
briefi ng I attended in Tarin Kowt
was presented by the Chief of Staff
on the Combined Team Uruzgan
(CTU), one LTCOL Jim Hammett.
Jim Hammett is an experienced
and seasoned war fi ghter,
having now been deployed on
seven overseas operations.
He has authored several
articles on war fi ghting, some
controversial but all well-supported
by those actually in the fi eld.
And like his father, he “thinks
outside the square” – a valuable
trait in the military.
His latest interest is in the
possible introduction of jet packs.
I had the honour of serving with
Tony Hammett and I have had
the privilege of watching his son,
Jim, being promoted through the
ranks into an outstanding offi cer.
It was a privilege to meet up
with him in Afghanistan.
- NEIL WEEKES
APRIL 2017 | 33