On rare occasions, we allow a speaker to exceed the max 30 minutes time allocation. Well, last Wednesday we had such a justification, when our newest member, Iain Campbell, gave us a brief insight into his life to date. Holey Moley!Born just a few years after the war and raised in Holland Park (Brisbane), he was an Airforce Cadet for some 5 years. Leaving school, he worked for the Commonwealth Bank. But banking was not for him, so he joined the Airforce to train as a Navigator. Within 12 months he graduated as a commissioned officer and was posted to Townsville to fly patrols in search for illegal fishing vessels, submarines and flying Search & Rescue missions. Keep in mind, aircraft were not pressurised and it was bitterly cold up there!
There followed postings to Butterworth (Malaysia), running Transport Support operations to Changi (Singapore), Indonesia and Thailand. Next he advanced to train Navigators, but soon it was back to patrols, based at the RAAF Base in Edinburg (South Australia).
Then "they wanted me to fly a desk”… Instead, Iain resigned his commission and moved to the Gold Coast, where his friend Geoff Croad organised a blind date, named Suzie… Result: he married her ☺.
A trip to Airlie Beach made them decide to go into the recreational diving business; Expo 88 generated a lot of international visitors. This followed them travelling the USA “like back packers”, all over, including on a 33 foot sailboat, ending that journey in Seattle, working as a diving instructor on cruise ships. The next stage: a pub in Edinburgh, doing an inventory of the place’s 300 different brands of rare Scotch Whisky [hmmm… I think we all would have been interested in that! ☺ Ed.] In 1996, they ended in Arizona, attaining US citizenship in 2000. Suzie started a company representing Inbound Tourism operators, whilst Iain entered the new frontier of Point of Sale (POS) systems.
But, ultimately, they called Australia home, and returned to the Gold Coast to retire. What a life journey! Welcome to Surfers Sunrise, Iain!
Photo (by Iain Campbell): With wife Suzie, on one of their cruise ship Diving Instructor engagements.