Frank Hales military history began as a boy soldier
in the British Army and his career developed through service in the Royal
Artillery and finally, prior to coming to Rhodesia, to serving as a soldier
attached to the British 22 SAS Regiment.
Frank was highly respected by all of us at PTS and
this respect was echoed amongst the specialist Rhodesian Army units too, more
specifically by those with “C” Squadron Rhodesian SAS.
He was always a particularly fit man carrying no
excess weight, an excellent instructor and an extremely competent parachutist
both static-line and freefall.
The responsibility fell between him and Derek to
design and trial a freefall training course for the SAS. With no-one to
instruct them, they devised this course and then further developed it by
individually trialing all aspects of the course skills on a trial and error
basis until they were satisfied they had it down pat. Following this, they then
trained the future freefall PJI instructors.
Frank had a superb military mind, and was of
enormous assistance not only to Derek de Kock in his capacity as PTS Operations
Officer, but also to the SAS with his ability to readily assess, then select
the most effective options available to enable their operation to succeed.
Frank enjoyed curries and all Asian dishes, and
frequently brought into work for his lunch, the remains of the previous evening’s
meal. The smell would get everyone’s salivary glands working overtime.
As mentioned previously, he was skilled in survival
techniques and in tracking, but it was his skilled ability in parachuting which
became his forte and those of us fortunate enough to serve with him at PTS
could not miss being affected by those skills which he demonstrated in his
work.
Trevor Smith
had come to PTS as one of its founder members from the British South Africa
Police in 1961.He was a fine parachutist and one of the best instructors PTS
ever had.
Naturally he was highly accomplished with those
students who took naturally to the training, but it was his singular ability to
effectively reach those slower students, as well as those whose nerves got the
better of them from time-to-time, to expertly lead them through to eventually
become fine static-line and free fall parachutists, which was one of his great
skills. This was well worth carefully watching and noting if one was a junior
instructor.
During the quiet years leading up to the late
1960’s, Trevor and I attended a Physical Training Instructor course at the
Rhodesian Light Infantry’s base at Cranborne Barracks, held under the direction
of C/Sgt Len Momsen.
This course, conducted in 1967, comprised students from across the
Rhodesian Armed Forces and ran for several months. It was always enjoyable, a
real testimony to Len and his staff, and brought the two of us closer together
as we competed with the Army students. Suffice to say we both completed the
course, ended up becoming a couple of pretty fit individuals, and, as a bonus,
became honorary coaches of the RAAU in
1968.
I should add that despite having literally done
hundreds of push-ups each day over the whole course, when we returned to PTS on
completion, Derek de Kock was still able to beat my best number in this
exercise, to my undying chagrin! (Editor’s note: the secret is always go last,
then you know the number required and, come hell or high water, can pace
yourself and pump out just one more.)
By the time I left the Air Force following yet another parachuting leg injury in early 1973, the size of PTS’s instructional staff had more than tripled and it would continue this accelerating pace of growth all the way through to the war’s end in 1980.
PTS attracted some wonderful characters from
military units as well as from civilian life from around the world into its
numbers.
Amongst these characters were;
Mike Wiltshire, an ex-London bus driver who became
an excellent instructor, endowed with an incredibly good sense of humour and
one of the best “can do” attitudes I’ve ever seen.
Mike made a hilariously funny, unintentional exit
from the Para Dak one night whilst on the run-in to drop free fallers. With the
cabin darkened to assist the jumper’s night vision, …. he took a step back
towards where he thought the opened “para” door was, and literally stepped into
the night sky!
Apart from the obvious initial fright he
experienced, he managed the situation well but paid the price for his error by
having to walk miles home, mostly through the bush, making sure he rang the
Boss to advise he was, apart from his embarrassment, in good shape!
John Boynton
was an ex- Brit Army man, who decorated his face with a wonderfully dense and
well-kept moustache.
John too was well-humoured, and eventually became
School Warrant Officer, a clear indication of his overall military bearing and
of the way he always conducted himself. John was a rock solid PTS member and the
sort of bloke you would trust every time with your life.
John
Bolton-Smith, was another Brit who had enjoyed a private school education and
spoke with a very posh voice. John joined us at the time we began training the
RAR to parachute. In fact one of first courses he took was a section of black
RAR soldiers.
He was experiencing difficulty communicating with
his men due to language and, wanting to ensure all of the skills his section
needed, sensibly approached their senior NCO to explain the problem.
He asked the senior man if he wouldn’t mind helping
him, by being his translator?
“Sure” the Colour Sergeant said.
“One other thing” asked John, “could you teach me
some key words that I will need to know to ensure the men fully understand me?”
“Sure,” the NCO said, “what words?”
“Well, for example,” said John, “what is the word
for think? I need them to be constantly thinking about what they’re doing up
there to avoid injury, collisions with other parachutists, steering, preparing
to land, and so on”.
“The word for think is funga”.
Later that morning I was sitting close by and
monitoring his lesson.
I was listening to him describing harness release
and dragging when I heard John, in his very intense, up-market English
accent, beseeching his men to “please chaps you really have to funga harder
when getting the canopy collapsed!”
I nearly
pissed myself laughing, then at the break went over to him and congratulated
him on the efforts he was making. His course eventually made it through to its
conclusion and he became a top team member.
Charlie Buchan and Ralph Moore were both ex- Brit Army and had served with the Rhodesian Army before transferring to PTS. What a couple of great and different characters they were!
One Scottish, the other Irish, both funny as hell, each in his own right an excellent instructor, and each brought to the school that added value of their own past military experience. Each brought their particular gifts to swell the rapidly increasing pool of skills PTS could now boast.
Ralph’s morse code sending and receiving for example, was quicker than I
could speak! Apart from this, he too was a superb maker of an outstanding
curried chicken. He would marinate it for 48 hours before transporting it to a
bush (night stop) DZ and serve it to us after the night jump program had ended.
Charlie’s previous military experience and natural
instructional skills added greatly to the growing number of truly top drawer
instructors on staff. Charlie subsequently went on to become commissioned as
the PTS Operations Officer.
John Early came from the US Army with a Special Forces background. He
had jumped as a member of the Golden Nights Army Demonstration Team and was an
accomplished free faller. John was small in stature and kept a very well
trimmed, small “Mo.” He was always smart, even dapper in appearance.
John was a thorough instructor, and like most, equipped with a great sense of humour. I remember towards the end of his time at PTS, with the war now close to ending, he asked me whether I would be interested in joining him in a new, and as he described it, “lucrative,” venture when the time came to leave?
When I asked what this might be he said: “It will
be based in my country, and specifically in New York”.
I reminded him that unlike him, being a single man,
I was married, had two young children, a mortgage and so on and couldn’t
possibly just up sticks to the USA. He reminded me about the “money” I could
earn, so I asked what we would be doing to earn this?
He told me we would buy/hire a large van, have massive
speakers fitted to the roof, then drive around the streets of New York
broadcasting the fact we were that great city’s first Mobile Abortion Service.
‘
“I’ve already thought of the logo for the van,” he
said; “No foetus can beatus”!
I watched John perform one of the calmest cut-aways
I’ve ever seen at our DZ one morning. Talk about being unflappable. Ten years
after Zimbabwe came into being, I was watching the Four Corners Program on TV
and saw John step out of a United Nations aircraft he had been flying for the
WHO.
Paul Hogan and Iain Bowen. Whilst Iain came to PTS
from the SAS, Paul arrived from Australia. Both were already trained
parachutists, however whilst Iain had already completed his military parachute
training through PTS, Paul’s experience was civilian sport parachuting. Paul
completed the whole Basic Para and freefall courses then went on to become one
of the PTS top instructors in free fall training.
Both these men loved parachuting with a passion and
this translated into making each of them amongst the very best instructors PTS
ever had. They were entirely dependable, intuitive and above all constantly
demonstrated the highest safety standards through their work.
Those students who had the good fortune to be
trained by these men would have derived much benefit from their skill and
careful attention to detail and through this would have become far better
parachutists than with any lesser instructor.
Paul had also learned skills on explosives in
Australia, working on the mines there, and I’m advised, these were put to use.
What was consistently true of all of us and of the
culture we developed at PTS and which prevailed throughout all of those who
would join us in later years, was the unique blend of absolute and professional
team commitment to;
# The maintenance of unswerving adherence to the
best possible safety standards for everyone who attended any type of training
at PTS.
# The recognition that , small as we were, each of
us would be capable of performing any and every PJI role.
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PART 4 BY TONY HUGHES TO FOLLOW
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