Have
you heard of Len Waters?
I
bet you haven't a clue who he was, I know until I watched an episode
of
So
I decided to write a post and tell others about him he was born
Leonard Victor Waters on the 20th
June 1924 at the Euraba Mission in northern New South Wales.
He
was the first Australian Aboriginal military aviator, and the only
one to serve as a fighter pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force
(RAAF) during World War II. Aborigines at the time suffered
significant discrimination and disadvantages in Australian society,
such as restrictions on movement, residence, employment, and access
to services and citizenship. Waters was working as a shearer when he
joined the RAAF in 1942.
Training
initially as a mechanic, he volunteered for flying duties and
graduated as a sergeant pilot in 1944. He flew P-40 Kittyhawks
in the South West
Pacific, where he completed 95 missions. By the end of the war he had
risen to the rank of warrant officer.
Although
the military had officially barred or restricted the recruitment of
Aborigines in earlier periods, these impediments were significantly
relaxed after Japan entered the war and Australia came under direct
attack. He volunteered for service in the RAAF on 24 August 1942 and
was accepted. He began training as an aircraft mechanic, but later
volunteered for flying service, and commenced initial training in
Victoria, in December 1943.
The
interviewer thought he looked "a bit rough" but "should
make a fighter", he believed his lack of education would be a
disadvantage, and studied nights to make up for it. Keen to be a
pilot, he was concerned that he would be allocated to duty as a
wireless operator because he showed an aptitude for Morse code early
on.
The
first aircraft to which he was assigned had already been named Black
Magic even before he took over its controls.
He
grew up at Nindigully, near St George in Queensland, and was educated
to the seventh grade at Nindigilly State School.
Hearing
tales of pioneering aviators Charles Kingsford Smith, Amy Johnson and
Charles Lindbergh, and reading stories of Biggles, Flash Gordon and
Buck Rogers, he had, as he put it, his "head in the clouds"
from an early age.
After
leaving school when he was 14 to support his family, working
alongside his father as a ring barker and being pain 10 shillings a
week for seven days work, this was about 1/6th
of the average way at the time. He later worked as a shearer.
Following
his discharge from the RAAF in 1946, he attempted to start a regional
airline but was unable to secure financial backing and government
approval, he went back to shearing and died in 1993 at the age of 69.
In
1995–96, Waters was commemorated in several ways: Australia Post
depicted
his portrait on a stamp and that of his P-40 Kittyhawk fighter "Black
Magic" on an aérogramme,
Black Magic Port was named after his personal Kittyhawk; Len Waters
Place, a park in Inala, was opened; Moree Plans Shire Council
dedicated
Leonard Waters Park in Boggabilla,
New South Wales; and Len Waters Street in Ngunnawal,
Australian Capital Territory, was named after him.
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