My tribute to Gough

In today’s letters to the editor in The Australian,  old OCS  classmate John Mosel reminisces on that fateful day.

One of my army unit’s trucks had broken down at a crossing at Betoota in western Queensland. I persuaded my CO to let me go with the aircraft taking the gearbox to the repair crew who were waiting at a hotel located on the crossing. On approach the next day, we overflew the pub which was surrounded by many vehicles. This was surprising because there were no buildings, other than the pub, as far as we could see. As we made our approach to the strip, a short distance from the crossing, a ute pulled away from the pub and drove towards us. The driver of the ute,  a young woman, backed the vehicle up to the side of the plane and told the pilot and I to take one end of the gearbox while she would handle the other. While effortlessly lifting her end into the back of the ute, she said, “Have you heard? They sacked that bastard Gough! Are you joining us for a beer?”

We all had a celebratory beer in the mess I was in at the time as well. How did you celebrate?