Picture: SANDRA MORELLO
ANZAC Day holds a sacred place in the heart of Mount Gambier’s Barbara Bruhn.
Holding onto a precious photograph in the lead up to today’s remembrance service at the city’s war memorial, Ms Bruhn, pictured above, sheds a tear as she remembers her beloved brother John Friedrichs.
John, 31, was tragically killed on February 2, 1977, while flying a Mirage jet on a low level aerobatic display in New South Wales.
The talented pilot’s legacy has now been rekindled as part of the resurgence of a story known as the “Tenison Flyers”.
John was a former student at the Marist Brothers College in Mount Gambier – he was at the college at the same time as three other young service pilots killed in air incidents while serving Australia.
They were Vietnam RAN helicopter pilot Lieutenant Anthony Casadio, RAAF helicopter pilot Flight Lieutenant Reginald van Leuven and Commander Errol Kavanagh.
When the sun rises today and the haunting melody of the Last Post echoes across the Vansittart Park Soldiers’ Memorial, Ms Bruhn’s thoughts will flow to the memory of her brother.
Ms Bruhn said it was important to remember all those who lost their lives in all theatres of war as well as serving the Australian Forces in peace time.
Speaking to The Border Watch, Ms Bruhn said the death of John came as a terrible shock to her family and she did not want to see John’s legacy fade away.
“It is emotional for me to speak about John,” said Bruhn, who also lost another brother in an air accident.
After leaving school, Ms Bruhn said John joined the seminary to become a priest.
“But after a few years he came out because he did not like it, so he got a job at a hardware store in Mount Gambier and then joined the air force,” Ms Bruhn said.
John’s passion for flying ran through his veins given his father was also a pilot with the air force.
Ms Bruhn’s husband Peter – who also served in the defence force and is the Mount Gambier Community RSL vice president – said Barbara’s family suffered a tragic period.
“John was killed and she also lost her younger brother Mark who was an Air Force pilot but transvwwferred into commercial sector,” Mr Bruhn said.
“He was doing a job for Kendell Airlines in Launceston – he was supposed to fly a Russian World War II plane back to Melbourne, but he never made it.”
“So Barbara lost two brothers, who left both of their wives pregnant in the one family.”
Mr Bruhn said it was important to remember all of the “Tenison Flyers” who lost their lives while serving their country.
The Tenison Flyers also includes former pilot John Mayfield, who is still alive.
According to press reports at the time, John Friedrichs was an experienced and “exceptional” pilot who was a flying instructor attached to the No 2 Operation Conversion Unit at Williamstown, where he helped young pilots convert from Macchi trainer jets to Mirages.
It is believed he was on a low training exercise when his Mirage crashed into low scrub near Tea Gardens, 50km, from Newcastle Lieutenant Casadio was killed in Vietnam in 1968 when his US Gunship helicopter crashed near Saigon.
Meanwhile, Flight Lieutenant van Leuven was killed in January 1974 – aged 26 years – when the RAAF helicopter he was piloting crashed while on rescue work during the heavy flooding near the Queensland-NSW border.
Errol Kavanagh – a former navy pilot, Commander of the First Australian mine Warfare Squadron – died as a result of flying for a charity day at Canberra
.
The legacy of the Tenison Flyers has been re-ignited following research undertaken by Mount Gambier Community RSL president Bob Sandow.
“I thought it was important not to let these flyers die without the community recognising them,” Mr Sandow said.
Tenison Woods College honours the memory of the “Tenison Flyers” with an accolade awarded to a student who shows symbolic qualities and a sense of comradeship.
