17 Construction Squadron Workshop Vietnam Association

THE FURPHY WAGON

NEWSLETTER - June 2021

Peter Ingrey

Mobile: 0417 432 922

Email: hpingrey71@bigpond.com

Daniel James Garlin MSM

www.17construction.org

Helen Ingrey

Phone: (02)49705532

Mobile: 0437 432 929

Email: 17wksp@gmail.com

George Jones AM

Garry (Snow) Whykes

Email: furphy.wagon@gmail.com

P a g e 2 W h a t T h e P r e z S e z — R e u n i o n U p d a t e P a g e 3 N a t i o n a l T P I F e d e r a t i o n P a g e 3 G e t t i n g O l d e r P a g e 4 W h e n A S o l d i e r C o m e s H o m e P a g e 5 T h e A d v e n t u r e s O f B a r r y . . . . . P a g e 6 J u s t f o r l a u g h s P a g e 7 A s s a i l a n t s u f f e r s i n j u r i e s f r o m f a l l P a g e 7 W h e r e t o f o r o u r N e x t R e u n i o n P a g e 8 W e b s i t e — C h a n g e O f A d d r e s s P a g e 8 A s s o c i a t i o n S p a r e W h e e l C o v e r

A Little Bear Will Fix

P o rt M a c q u a ri e B e a c h e s a n d W a t e rwa y s - N e w s le t t e r P a g e 2

Three months to go before we head to Port Macquarie and Sydney has just gone into lockdown. Let

us hope that all goes well, and this Virus does not spoil our reunion, it seems that it is here to stay in

some form of variant or two. Speaking of “two” will we all have been vaccinated with the AstraZene-

ca or Pfyzer Vaccines by then. I get my second shot in two weeks, the first one kept me awake for a

lot of the night and a bit off the following day.

THE REUNION.

It has been a bit of a challenge, but it is coming together, still a few things to finalise. One problem is

the Parade and Wreath laying ceremony. The Cenotaph is in the centre of a car parking area in the

middle of town and the Port Macquarie Hastings City Council will not give permission to close off

the area. The alternative is a Memorial dedicated to “National Servicemen” in a park just out of

town, where we could do our wreath laying and hold a service, but we are having problems in getting

permission from the Council regarding use of the park. Council wants us to have Public Liability In-

surance before they will give us permission to use it.

We have been in contact with several insurance companies and brokers and cannot find any one of

them willing to cover us. We have also been in contact with the Department of Defence in Canberra

and Veterans Affairs but have not heard a word from them. If we cannot gain the appropriate insur-

ance, we will have a remembrance ceremony at our farewell dinner on the Friday night. It seems

there will not be a march this reunion.

As an alternate to the day we nominated for the remembrance service, we have a bus trip in mind so

the day will not be lost.

We have set an itinerary which will give you plenty of free time to enjoy the local attractions, they

are numerous and according to taste you should be well catered for.

We begin our reunion at the Port Bowling club – not far from the Caravan Park at 1500 hrs on

Monday 11th October. Our final costing is $220 per head and in the next newsletter we will have a

full itinerary.

If you wish to begin making your payment, please make sure your name is clearly marked with the

deposit.

Banking details are:-

17 Construction Sqn Workshop Vietnam Association

BSB 066000 Account number 10100303 with the Commonwealth Bank

If all goes pear shape, we will endeavor to refund all monies where possible.

Keep well

Peter

P o r t M a c q ua r ie B e a c he s a n d W a te r wa y s - P a g e 3

DEFINITION OF OPERATIONAL AND NON-OPERATIONAL SERVICE Folks,

I wrote the comment below to a TPI Association member after reading that the National TPI President (ex- Army with no operational service) has been suggesting at Senate hearing level that Operational Service and Peacetime Training are the same and there should be no differ-ence in the way that operational and non-operational service are treated.

There are all sorts of definitions within the various Acts relating to different types of service. However I prefer to reference the purist indicator of the difference between Operational and Non-Operational service: the entitlement to wear the RASB.

Pure and simple, the wearer of the RASB is a “Returned from Active Service Serviceman or Woman” or a “veteran” in the truest sense that we all understood and recognized before ill-informed politicians clouded the water.

The RASB is an unambiguous sign of the status of the wearer.

To seal the deal, Defence refers to the RASB as “recognition of ADF members who have returned from active or warlike service” , and to further emphasise the status of the RASB, the issue of the badge is included in the list of “awards” on a discharge certificate for those entitled to wear it.

No amount of thrashing around on non-operational service or training qualifies for the award of the RASB. If there was no difference between Peacetime Training and Operational Service there would be no need for the RASB at all, or if taken to the ridiculous extreme that Peacetime Training and Operational Service are the same as the TPI Presi-dent suggests, then the RASB or similar would be issued to everyone who completes recruit training!

Cheers,

Bob Elworthy

Two blokes, one old, one young are pushing their carts around K Mart when they col-

lide. The old bloke says to the young fella, "Sorry about that mate I'm looking for my wife

and I guess I wasn't paying attention to where I was going.

The young bloke says, "That's OK, it's a coincidence, I'm looking for my wife too.

I can't find her and I'm getting a little desperate." The old bloke says, "Well, maybe I can

help you find her...what does she look like?"

The young bloke says, "Well, she is 27 years old, tall, with red hair, blue eyes, bux-

om...wearing no bra, long legs, and is wearing short shorts.

What does your wife look like?' To which the old bloke says, "It doesn't matter, let's look

for yours."

P a g e 4 Ne ws le t t e r Ti t le P o rt M a cqu a rie Be a ch e s a n d W a t e rwa y s - N e ws le t t e r

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When a soldier comes home, he finds it

hard.... ..to listen to his son whine about being

bored.

....to keep a straight face when people

complain about potholes.

...to be understanding when a co-worker complains about a bad night's sleep.

..to be silent when people pray to God for a new car.

...to control his panic when his wife tells him he needs to drive slower.

..to be compassionate when a business-man expresses a fear of flying.

....to just walk away when someone says they only get two weeks of vacation a

year.

....to keep from laughing when anxious

parents say they're afraid to send their

kids off to summer camp.

....to keep from ridiculing someone who

complains about hot weather.

....to remain calm when his daughter

complains about having to walk the dog.

....to be forgiving when someone says how hard it is to have a new baby in the

house.

The only thing harder than being a Sol-

dier..

Is loving one. PROUD TO BE AN AUSTRALIAN!

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Have you heard of “The Adventures Of Barry McKenzie” - Well here’s the “Adventures Of Barry Warn”

Hi, everyone just an update from my Simpson desert Hay river track 4wh.dr.adventure earlier this month. With 3 other vehicles. We drove from Sydney to Adelaide to Alice Springs and about 400kms north east of Alice Springs to a place called Jervios station camp spot, to start our trip.

You may have heard that I caught my right index finger in the electric winch on the front of my 4wh.dr. ford raptor. on the 8th of may.

We were about half way down the hay river track route when one of the other Toyota’s engine mounts had dropped down and the engine cooling fan was rubbing on the lower part of the radiator cowling, so we had to do a repair to that. While that was going on I decided to go back to my vehicle and fix the loose winch shackle that was rattling on the bumper bar. I had the winch remote control switch still behind the o/s/f headlight out of the way. I was operating the winch switch back and forward to get the cable tighter it kept jamming... until I put my finger in the way.

My finger went into the winch with the cable a few inches and tore the whole finger print pad right off, so it was hanging by the finger nail only.

You could see the finger bone exposed. I walked back down to the others who were working on the Toyo-ta and said I need a bandage.

Luckily in our other 3 vehicle crews was a retired nurse who took one look and said I need urgent medi-cal attention, we used the 1st aid kit and wrapped it up tight. had antibiotics and pain killers all the time.

Only problem was we were in the middle of the desert with no communication by normal mobile phone, but we had a sat.phone to call 000.

We got onto 000 I think at Canberra and tried to tell them where we were, we were talking to a younger generation who did not do geography at school ...they did not understand where we were. We asked them to put a map of Australia on their computer screen and put their finger in the center of the map.. that’s where we are we said, finally gave them latitude/longitude numbers and they also traced the sat.phone and all was okay.

But there was no medical centre for 400kms.and no helicopter could reach us, also no landing area for the flying doctor plane.

So we drove 4 days and stayed 3 nights to meet the flying doctors place at Birdsville.

The Dr could not stitch it up as it had been 4 days just re dressed the finger tightly and wanted to fly me back to the main hospital at Toowoomba for x.ray and re-assess the damage, but then I would have to fly to Brisbane then fly to Sydney .it would take too long I thought.

The other way was to drive 3 days/nights back to Sydney ..which we did from Birdsville. The rest of the group continued on their trip.

The Sydney X.ray showed the very end bone broken with a small gap. Went to a specialist at the SAN.hospital and he cut away all the dead skin and sowed it up. I had the last of the stitches removed last week ,12 of them, and the finger is slowly healing up and I may get a finger nail..

So that was my holiday adventure shortened by about 2 weeks. Lee is making me eat all the packets of food etc. that I bought back as punishment.

Cheers

Barry.

No RAP close by eh Baz??

P a g e 6 Ne ws le t t e r Ti t le P o rt M a cqu a rie Be a ch e s a n d W a t e rwa y s - N e ws le t t e r

P o r t M a c q ua r ie B e a c he s a n d W a te r wa y s -

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Important Notice

T he authori ty that cont rols Aust ral ian websi te domain names has i n-formed our webmaster of changes t hat hav e to be made to our . o rg . a u

web address . Because of these changes , we need to amend our websi t e ad -dress . The . a u has been removed and our new web address i s:

www.17construction.org Please amend your records

T he past couple of years have seen uncertain times for the world with COVID 19 devastat-

ing many countries, their people and their respective economies. Countries all over the

globe have suffered at the hands of this horrific pandemic and at this point in time, there ap-

pears to be no end in sight. However, we as Australians will push on and overcome adversity,

we always do as we have a reputation for doing just that. With this in mind, it is now time to

put some thought into the location of our next reunion.

So far we have had reunions in Canberra (ACT), Launceston (Tas), Perth (WA), Sydney (NSW),

Brisbane (Qld), Darwin (NT), Alice Springs (NT), A Cruise out of Sydney (NSW), Clare Valley

(SA), Bendigo (Vic), Sunshine Coast (Qld), Albany (WA) and this year at Port Macquarie

(NSW) all going well.

As we are all now in our 70’s and 80’s (and some in the 90’s) we must consider a number of as-

pects;

• Firstly—Appropriate Accommodation. Some still have the ability to caravan their way

around whilst others are now in need of more appropriate accommodation.

• Secondly—Destination. Ease of access from our home state.

• Next—Activities and Functions. How strenuous do we want our activities to be.

• Lastly—The number of days for our reunion.

Maybe we should consider a Capital city (or a suburb) that has access to public transport and

accommodation with a caravan park. Three days of camaraderie with the final day as one of

being together.

As an example: Victoria after the Grand Final. Elwood or Brighton area for three days.

Please think about it and send your suggestions to the Secretary before our Port Macquarie re-

union.

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O rville Smith, a store manager for Best Buy in Augusta Ga, told police he observed a

male customer, later identified as Tyrone Jackson of Augusta, on surveillance camera

putting a laptop computer under his jacket. When confronted the man became irate,

knocked down an employee, drew a knife and ran for the door.

Outside on the sidewalk were four Marines collecting toys for the Toys for Tots program.

Smith said the Marines stopped the man, but he stabbed one of the Marines, corporal Phil-

lip Duggan in the back; the injury did not appear to be serious.

After police and ambulance arrived on the scene, Cpl Duggan was transported to hospital

for treatment. “The would be thief was also transported to the local hospital with two bro-

ken arms, a broken ankle, a broken leg, several missing teeth, suspected fractured ribs, mul-

tiple contusions, multiple lacerations, a broken nose and a broken jaw….injuries he sus-

tained when he slipped and fell off the curb after he stabbed the Marine”. according to the

police report.

I f you are interested in purchasing an Association Logo spare wheel cover for your vehicle

or caravan, you can purchase one for approx. $120.00.

To purchase one of these contact Natalie at the following

email address:

natalie@rustygate.com.au

You will need to give her your tyre size etc. and tell her

you want a 17 Construction Squadron Workshop logo

Spare Wheel Cover.

I have one and it looks great.