Warrant Officer (retired) John McDougall.  John had an Air Force engineering and flying career spanning 25 years.  John completed three tours on Caribous in Vietnam between August 64 and April 68.  Also, John was deployed frequently to the difficult flying environment of Papua New Guinea.  He had many other notable deployments over his career including Kashmir, Sumatra, Sacramento and Idaho.

He joined the RAAF in 1960 as Apprentice Engine Fitter.  Within a very short time after graduation from technical training, he was serving on the first deployment of Caribous with RAAF Transport Flight in Vietnam.  John’s stories about the dangers, trials and tribulations of the first few months and then his ongoing deployment for 3 Vietnam tours are fascinating and inspiring.  His first 2 tours were as an Engine Fitter and his third tour was as Aircrew performing the very diverse and challenging duties of a Caribou Loadmaster/Engineer.

Following this, John became an Instructor for Pilot and Loadmaster / Engineer Conversion courses.

John was then posted to 482 Squadron. Amberley.  Numerous deployments were made from there including four months in Sacramento doing Cold Proof Load Testing on F111-C aircraft and accepting four ex United States Air Force F-111A model aircraft to replace four that the Australian Air Force had lost.

In 1983, John was posted to Number 1 Sqn. as Warrant Officer Engineer.  He had numerous deployments from there including Bomb Comp at Mount Home Air Force Base Idaho, then to Eglin Air Force Base Florida for aircraft trials.