Angus Houston

Working as a share farmer in the middle of an Australian drought is as good a reason as any to look for a career change, and Angus Houston decided that another career would better suit his future, especially as farming had left him stony broke.

Luckily he chose the ADF and rose through his career to assume the most important role in the ADF, Chief of the Defence Force.

That share farmer retired, after more than four decades of distinguished service, as Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston AK, AFC, Chief of the Defence Force.

Sir Angus signed up with the Royal Australian Air Force as a cadet pilot in 1970 spending his early career piloting the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter around Australia, Papua New Guinea and Indonesia. It was as the pilot of an Iroquois in 1980 that Sir Angus was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) for an open seas rescue, in gale force winds off the coast of New South Wales.

“The great thing about the Huey was that it was the perfect medevac aircraft and we were always ready to do that,” Sir Angus said.

“I enjoyed all aspects of flying the Huey but what was particularly rewarding was flying around Papua New Guinea.

“It was a great aeroplane to fly around New Guinea although when you got to high altitude it started to run out of performance,” he said.

Appointed Chief of Air Force in 2001, Sir Angus had overseen the introduction of Blackhawk helicopters as Commanding Officer of No 9 Squadron, in a career marked with many successes.

“As Commanding Officer of No 9 Squadron I had to introduce the Blackhawk helicopter into service.

“Once we had established a reasonable number of Blackhawks we relocated the Squadron from Amberley to Townsville and then on St Valentine’s Day 1989 we transferred the capability from Air Force to Army,” Sir Angus said.

“I was very lucky to fly Iroquois’ because the helicopter squadrons required teamwork.

“I had the great joy of learning to lead people in the military context right from the outset.

“It was a team environment from top to bottom,” he said.

Sir Angus was promoted to Air Chief Marshal and appointed Chief of the Defence Force (CDF) on 4 July 2005.

“As CDF you are leading a wonderful force of sailors, soldiers and airmen who in my time did a lot of operational service,” Sir Angus said.

“The Air Force has an amazing record and when you look at all the things we are doing at the moment, I think Sir Richard Williams and our forebears would be very proud of a very capable fifth generation Air Force.

“If I had to do it all over again - I’d do it all over again,” he said.