Royal Australian Armourer Corps NCO's Swagger Stick

Some old photos that have just arrived

Col Symons has sent me the old photos shown below, which I was delighted to receive.

Centurions being unloaded from the "Clive Steele" (LSM) at Stockton NSW---- The Clive Steele was doing sea trials from Melbourne to Stockton 1963 / 1964 --- Note the breakwater in the background.

 Colin Symons pointed out that all the LSM's were all named after Engineer Generals!

Ashore.

The chap with no Beret on  sitting against the turret was Mr. Ford, Minister of Defence.

This is an interesting photo, place unknown but it would be the Clive Steele, maybe doing the sea trails

 The  officer with the cap was Major Wilson OC 32 small ships Sqn RAE

The RAAC  Lt in white overalls was Lt John Mead

Note the placement of the Glacis bin, also that windscreen unit, they were bloody terrible and were in my day stored in the Glacis bin and never removed. The Glacis bin was moved off the Glacis plate when they went to Vietnam. Also the drilling for the .50 has not been done yet, although the B Barrel is in place

At sea with some Yank Tanks onboard

Unloading 169077 at Vung Tau onto the "Hard Standing".

A day with Brenton at Puckapunyal

Brenton rang and asked me if I wanted to take the Saladin out on the Tank track at Puckapunyal, so with a mate, John Clifford an ex Navy Fleet Air Arm Armourer we set forth.

Water restrictions now stop all washing of units in Puckapunyal, so mud has to be left on for effect

A shot looking in through the drivers hatch - note rounds stored on right, also another storage bin (empty) left centre of photo

Brenton displaying item for me to photograph

Radio setup

Looking down from the Gunners hatch

View of the Gunnery setup -- note more rounds storage on right and left of photo

Crew Commanders scope setup --- external and internal

Gunnery setup

Gunners scope

Left Crew Commander, right Gunners hatches

Crew Commanders hatch showing external scopes and mount for .30 cal Flex to drop in on left of photo

W W 11  Ration pack, complete as supplied.

Set of original goggles and beret plus a spare exhaust extractor for inside turret

Radio handset

An extension speaker but not original for the Saladin

A new packet of .30 cal links

There are grenade storage box's inside the turret so a dummy grenade was required

BRENTON THEN TOOK US INSIDE HIS UNIT.

Things have sure changed from my day -- daily inspections are now more or less every six months and civilian items which had to be inside a cupboard were now allowed to be displayed. The unit consists or  bedroom, day room, with fridge and microwave, and Brenton ha h is computer setup to his TV, which gives him a great monitor size. There is also a bathroom / laundry which we did not see and the whole unit is shared with another guy. A bit different from the old Nissan huts of my day with 4 to a room and very strict rules on what could be kept in the room and how it was to be displayed.

Brenton had some very nice pics on his wall like the M113 above -- note the Saladin turret

A Centurion in Vietnam

And some Leopard's in Australia -- These are all big framed pictures and look great

Brought back from America when Brenton was posted there for the Abrams Course

Another nice framed display

Brenton has dozens of models he has made.

Some more

Another shot. Brenton has a very large collection of items, many of which he donated to the Vietnam Veterans Museum at Phillip Island

Brenton has used just about all his free space