Military Veterans Who Collect Watches

Early in 1993the DSTO (Defence Science and Technology Organisation) wanted to conduct a battle damage assessment of the AIM7-M Sparrow A/A missile which was used by the RAAF.

My CO tasked me with organising and conducting the evaluation at the Air Force's Test and Evaluation Range (the world's largest) at Woomera in South Australia.

The range was about 480 kilometres from our base near Adelaide so I requested a 4x4 (Toyota Landcruiser) for the trip. It had to be 4x4 as we would be driving around the range on some very rough tracks. However, COMFLEET (the Government rent-a-car) decided that I only needed a four door sedan (which I didn't find out until I picked it up, and no more Landy's left) so I took the government rent-a-car with the intention of driving it like I stole it.

The trip from the base to the range takes about 4 to 5 hours, and there's always an "unofficial" record to be set. It was a fairly uneventful trip up to Woomera. The roads are just two lane blacktop and go for kilometres without a bend or a curve.
After a couple of hours we hit a nice straight stretch so I decided to see how the sedan would wind out. It didn't do too badly, but at an indicated 200kph I decided to ease back as the front end was floating a bit too much and steering was getting a bit light.
A few minutes after that I spotted something coming up fast in the rear view mirror, my two passengers were almost asleep so I just waited for the fun.
A few seconds later we were overtaken by the squadrons Dak (C-47) flying at 100 feet above road level with the throttles jammed to the instrument panel. Nothing like a pair of Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasps at full song to jerk my two pax into wide eyed wakefulness!

The rest of the trip was uneventful. Except for the event a day or so later.
I was driving along a rough track out to one of the remote HE bombing targets with my CO when we hit a washout that made the front end bottom out, and a large rock on the track tore the sump open. Shit shit shit! And other words..............
Being ever resourceful Gunnies though, we radioed range control for a rescue truck and after about an hour a Landcruiser picked us up. As the Falcon couldn't be driven, I think my CO just gave COMFLEET the map coordinates so they could get the car picked up 😁.

Anyway, we thought no more of it until my CO called me in about a month later and showed me a bill from COMFLEET!
A very big bill. 😲
Did you keep a RECON of the 4x4 request and their replies? he asked.
You bet I did, I handed them over to him and he "discussed it" with the public servants at the rent-a-car organisation and we never heard from them again.

That's enough about cars.

On to the fun stuff. Things that go bang!

The AIM-7 warhead contained about 40 kilos of high explosive and a fragmentation ring.

I got the carpenters at the base to make a softwood stand to mount the warhead about two metres above the ground in a "flight direction" toward the surface. Imagine a 20 litre drum sitting on a tall stand. It had to be pointing down to simulate an in-flight detonation as the frag part of the warhead was a continuous expanding rod that would expand like a very very big very very fast very very heavy chainsaw blade, effectively shredding anything in its path out to a radius of about X metres.

DSTO had set up a number of aircraft components in an array around the warhead, C-130 engine nacelles, aircraft wings and tail sections and some cans for fuel liability tests. I also set up a number of witness panels to measure the blast overpressure. These were just two sheets of aluminium with a range of holes drilled through, from about 20mm ø up to 50mm ø, with a sheet of A4 paper sandwiched between them. A very high overpressure would rupture small holes and by spacing the panels we could estimate the results of the blast pressures.

DSTO also had some very high speed cameras set up to record everything and a cameraman to run the equipment.
Came the big day and I helped the cameraman run out his main lines. That's funny I thought, this cable isn't going to reach the firing point (which was the required "safe distance" away from the warhead). Have you got any more cable? "Uh, no" was the mumbled reply.
Swear words again. The range was active, flying had been suspended and the only spare cables he had were 480 kilometres away!

The test site was on a disused runway so I looked around and decided that the best option would be to change the firing point to a position behind one of the steel panel/earth filled revetments (blast walls). It was a lot closer than I'd like, but when things gotta be done, you just get on and do it. I briefed the rest of the spectators and told them they would be at the safety point, while the cameraman would accompany me to the new firing point (I don't think he was happy).

When the spectators notified me that they were hunkered down, I went out and set the charge in the warhead, went back to the firing point and connected the fancy exploder that would start the cameras and initiate the charge a second later. I told the cameraman to stand back against the wall and keep his mouth open to equalise pressure in his thick head.

With an all clear, I hit the tit as they say, and the earth moved for me, as they say.

We were wearing earplugs, maximum rated ear protectors and a kidney belt, but I don't think they did anything. I saw the flash on the opposite wall and then almost instantaneously, the blast wave hit and I felt the ground below punch us.
It was a buzz! A thousand times better than any drugs.

After I did an all clear the goofers came up and examined everything. All I was interested then was putting the fires out so we could get back to town and have a cold beer or two.

I did have a stack of paper photos from the op, but my ex got them and probably burnt them, only got this one left.

That grey patch in front of me, in the hardened concrete airstrip, is the spot below where the warhead detonated.
I couldn't find any close proximity witness panels, they're probably still out there somewhere 😁.