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My father, Wing Commander John C Griffiths, MBE, joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) from Melbourne in the mid-late 1960s.

At the outbreak of World War 2 my father John Percival Garrard was teaching at a one-teacher school in Forest, situated in the Otway Ranges in Victoria. He had settled there with his wife Dorothy and young family - Patricia, aged four and John aged two.

In 38 years of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) service my father, Air Commodore Geoffrey William Talbot AFC (Air Force Cross), accumulated more than 7000 flying hours in 75 different aircraft types.

Squadron Leader Ernest Albert Whiting - Far right holding a book.

My earliest childhood memories were of RAAF Base Pearce, when my father, then Squadron Leader Ernest Albert Whiting – always known as Bill - was Commanding Officer No. 7 National Service Training Unit.