Ken Cooper's Story
Ken joined the RAF in 1959 and left the Service with the rank of Corporal in 1973. In 1965/6 he served in Borneo as a Junior Technician; this is his story.
I spent an enjoyable time in Borneo just drinking, swimming and sunbathing,
however the last 6 weeks were a bit more frantic.
I came off my night shift(Ground Radio Servicing Flight, RAF Kuching)one morning, went to my "basha" and slept for a
couple of hours. Because there wasn't a great deal to do I often walked back
to my workplace for a "cuppa" and a yarn. My boss saw me and asked me to
step into his office for a chat (I wondered what I had done wrong) . I was
asked to volunteer for a job off the camp for a couple of days. It sounded
alright so I agreed. Two days later I was issued with a brand new Landrover
packed with communications gear and an Officer flown in from Singapore. I
had to drive to a forward base called Bau occupied by the Australian 4th Regiment. At
first it seemed easy enough as I only had to control the re-fuelling and
troop movements of personnel using Whirlwind helicopters. A couple of days
turned into 6 weeks as although we were on a war footing with the Indonesian
guerillas and General Sukarno, (the fighting was up in the hills) the
fighting was getting closer by the day due to the guerillas burning and
shooting up the villages. We suddenly became very active with all the
Commonwealth troops taking part and it became daily a 24 hr affair. It got
to the point that I lived at my map table, food was brought to me and I was
only allowed time for washing and toilets. My birthday came and went and I
did not know it. My day for travelling back to UK. came and went and I
didn't know that either. The last of the guerillas were killed one morning
and we all breathed a sigh of relief. During the struggles an Australian
unit were badly hit one night and two men were critically wounded. I
contacted my Air Force base and they organised a volunteer crew who got
them out under cover of darkness. The men were airlifted out and brought
back to Kuching Hospital. I had never seen these men and I did not know
their names, but as I got aboard the "Argosy" aircraft to fly back to
Singapore ( It was a casevac aircraft with a mix of seating arrangements to
suit stretchers and passengers) an arm reached out to me and an Aussie
voice said " You are the bloke that got us out of trouble up on the ridge
arn't you , thanks a million matey". Well I was gobsmacked. I didn't need
any thanks for doing my job but " How the hell did he know I was involved?"
I left Singapore the following day and then it took me a week to get home as
every time the Aircraft stopped for refuelling either an engine packed up or
a propeller broke up ( This was June 1966 of course and an old Brittania
aircraft )
..................................................oOo....................................................