Hey Vic - you were quite a sort - I think you are the one kneeling down?
Cupie said
10:12 AM Jul 22, 2014
That's got to be a rather old photo, what with the 303s, old webbing & gaiters, and possibly khaki uniform. CMF?
Vic41 said
01:07 PM Jul 22, 2014
jules47 wrote:
Hey Vic - you were quite a sort - I think you are the one kneeling down?
No that was a mate called Bob Burney, he got killed walking along the road not long after that. I can't remember the name of the fair headed bloke on the right of the photo looking at it.
I was standing on the left side of the photo looking at it, all of 17 and about 10 stone then.
Cupie, that was the regular army, they were still using .303's, Owen Machine Guns, Energa .303 grenade launchers and Bren guns etc, we were still using those when I was posted to PNG from 17 Construction Squadron to PNG Construction Squadron at Moem Peninsula, 10 kms east of Wewak.
SLR's, M16s etc and US webbing did not come in until after that and I was not issued with it until a later posting to 1 Field Squadron.
-- Edited by Vic41 on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 01:07:54 PM
KeenTravellers said
01:29 PM Jul 22, 2014
Hey Vic
Great Photo Vic. Seen a few of my Dad & his mates from PNG days. My dad was in transport (2 Div - I think ) in Wewak, Lae, Milne Bay & Boganville...
they went all over dropping supplies and pickups...Did you guys build some big bridge up there ....he got into trouble for laying planks one night on the last open section
and being the first truck across...
Cheers
KT
Vic41 said
02:17 PM Jul 22, 2014
Hi KT,
My Uncle was in Transport at Milne Bay (Doug Kilpatrick, now deceased).
For the 18 months I was at Moem we initially lived in tents as we were the advance party of our unit, then got the locals to build us native type huts (sack sack & pungle.....conconut palm leaves and stalks) which we lived in during our stay.
Our task was to build a camp for the PIR (Pacific Island Regiment) to counter a threat of invasion from the Indonesians on the other side of the border. We did all the ground work (clearing the scrub, building roads and WW2 unexploded bombs disposal in the general area) and the building of the barracks proper hadn't started by the time I left. Did a few patrols to other areas and went with a mate who was a pilot with the Catholic Mission to areas of the Sepik River etc while there, also acted as an observer on a DC3 flying over the area where one of the Rockafella sons disappeared when his yatch sunk (they reckon one of the cannibal tribes got him when he came ashore).
The PIR barracks we started the groundworks for was burnt to the ground later in 2002 by a PIR mutiny, we had a group of PIR attached with us at Moem when I was there, most seemed like a nice bunch but some were a bit wild. Here is a link to the the PIR riot of 2002.
Loved my time in PNG but have no great desire to go back, got Dengue Fever and a relapse while I was there and hospitalized at Wewak Hospital. Also had to evacuate our camp to higher ground due to the backwash of the Chile earthquake sunami which destroyed part of the old Wewak hospital. The ocean horizon looked like jagged mountain tops and the water was being sucked in and out that quickly near the shore that it was leaving the ocean bed and reef dry and sharks and other fish flapping on the reef, then would come back in just as quickly again, saw that just before we took off for higher ground.
Glenelg said
03:12 PM Jul 22, 2014
great stories Vic, maybe not so great memories
Vic41 said
03:35 PM Jul 22, 2014
I wouldn't have missed it for quids Dave, I had a little girlfriend in Angoram on the Sepik River, she would come to Wewak from time to time to catch up, I often wondered what happened to her, we never kept in contact.
Pity there is so much violence up there now since they gained their independence. One of the other GN's on this site worked on mine sites up there for a number of years, Jonathon also spent part of his childhood up there.
Big Gorilla said
05:11 PM Jul 22, 2014
Vic I found this photo. Are you sure it's not you in disguise !!!
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 05:11:31 PM
Vic you look better in picture than you do in avatar
sorry couldn't help myself.
-- Edited by Glenelg on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 09:58:28 AM
That's got to be a rather old photo, what with the 303s, old webbing & gaiters, and possibly khaki uniform. CMF?
No that was a mate called Bob Burney, he got killed walking along the road not long after that. I can't remember the name of the fair headed bloke on the right of the photo looking at it.
I was standing on the left side of the photo looking at it, all of 17 and about 10 stone then.
Cupie, that was the regular army, they were still using .303's, Owen Machine Guns, Energa .303 grenade launchers and Bren guns etc, we were still using those when I was posted to PNG from 17 Construction Squadron to PNG Construction Squadron at Moem Peninsula, 10 kms east of Wewak.
SLR's, M16s etc and US webbing did not come in until after that and I was not issued with it until a later posting to 1 Field Squadron.
-- Edited by Vic41 on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 01:07:54 PM
Great Photo Vic. Seen a few of my Dad & his mates from PNG days. My dad was in transport (2 Div - I think ) in Wewak, Lae, Milne Bay & Boganville...
they went all over dropping supplies and pickups...Did you guys build some big bridge up there ....he got into trouble for laying planks one night on the last open section
and being the first truck across...
Cheers
KT
Hi KT,
My Uncle was in Transport at Milne Bay (Doug Kilpatrick, now deceased).
For the 18 months I was at Moem we initially lived in tents as we were the advance party of our unit, then got the locals to build us native type huts (sack sack & pungle.....conconut palm leaves and stalks) which we lived in during our stay.
Our task was to build a camp for the PIR (Pacific Island Regiment) to counter a threat of invasion from the Indonesians on the other side of the border. We did all the ground work (clearing the scrub, building roads and WW2 unexploded bombs disposal in the general area) and the building of the barracks proper hadn't started by the time I left. Did a few patrols to other areas and went with a mate who was a pilot with the Catholic Mission to areas of the Sepik River etc while there, also acted as an observer on a DC3 flying over the area where one of the Rockafella sons disappeared when his yatch sunk (they reckon one of the cannibal tribes got him when he came ashore).
The PIR barracks we started the groundworks for was burnt to the ground later in 2002 by a PIR mutiny, we had a group of PIR attached with us at Moem when I was there, most seemed like a nice bunch but some were a bit wild. Here is a link to the the PIR riot of 2002.
http://exkiap.net/news/pngdf.htm
Loved my time in PNG but have no great desire to go back, got Dengue Fever and a relapse while I was there and hospitalized at Wewak Hospital. Also had to evacuate our camp to higher ground due to the backwash of the Chile earthquake sunami which destroyed part of the old Wewak hospital. The ocean horizon looked like jagged mountain tops and the water was being sucked in and out that quickly near the shore that it was leaving the ocean bed and reef dry and sharks and other fish flapping on the reef, then would come back in just as quickly again, saw that just before we took off for higher ground.
I wouldn't have missed it for quids Dave, I had a little girlfriend in Angoram on the Sepik River, she would come to Wewak from time to time to catch up, I often wondered what happened to her, we never kept in contact.
Pity there is so much violence up there now since they gained their independence. One of the other GN's on this site worked on mine sites up there for a number of years, Jonathon also spent part of his childhood up there.
Vic I found this photo. Are you sure it's not you in disguise !!!
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 05:11:31 PM
I wish!.....
I did enjoy those helicopter rides up there though....
-- Edited by Vic41 on Tuesday 22nd of July 2014 09:22:19 PM
You look like a good Pilot Mate with that headset on !!!
-- Edited by Big Gorilla on Wednesday 23rd of July 2014 08:42:15 AM
Vic, is that your joystick?
well somebody had to say it. 
I'd be too embarrassed to say something like that !!!
He's certainly very liberally endowed by nature !!!
bulldust
thats not really him
Yes it is......ask your twins......
how would my twins know? they would not associate with anybody like you
On second thoughts, after they had been contaminated by you I don't think I would want too...
I don't blame you Vic. You would have to renew the varnish afterwards.