Air despair a call to arms

By KATHERINE HOBY and PAULA OLIVER

A vital defence force and generations of Air Force pride will be lost when the Government scraps the strike wing, say Save Our Squadrons (SOS) campaigners.

Families connected to the Air Force joined returned servicemen and women in marches in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch yesterday.

Politicians speaking to the crowds were greeted with varying reactions: Defence Minister Mark Burton and former Labour MP Richard Northey were unpopular, National leader Bill English and defence spokesman Max Bradford were at least listened to.

Three generations of Caroline Karauria's family - her father-in-law, husband, and two daughters and a son - have been in the Air Force.

The son and one daughter are still in uniform.

Mrs Karauria, her daughter and two grandchildren walked near the front of the Queen St parade of more than 1000 people. The children carried placards bearing photographs of their uncle and grandfather.

"I've been a very proud Air Force wife, daughter-in-law and mum," Mrs Karauria said.

"It's really very sad. I think they should keep them on."

Daughter Sonia Terekia, who served for seven years in the communications wing, said the Air Force offered people from small communities "jobs they could hold their heads up for".

John Booth, an Army veteran of the Malayan and Vietnam campaigns, marched to support his colleagues in the Air Force, past and present.

"I can't tell you how much we valued the combat and logistics support from those guys," he said.

"We are selling our nation short if we go ahead with this."

SOS campaign spokesman Vern Curtis said the group was investigating a court challenge to the Government decision, and expected a decision within days.

"It [the Air Force] is being turned from an armed force into an unarmed force."

Mr Northey tried to assure the crowd in Aotea Square that the Government was committed to "a modern defence force", but he was booed and peppered with cries of "shame".

Mr Bradford received a better reception.

"It is a shame, a real shame that the Air Force men and women have been tossed on to the scrapheap of history," he said.

In Wellington, the silent shuffle of aged servicemen and their younger comrades gave the march to Parliament an eerie feel.

About 400 people, many wearing old uniforms, trooped through the city in a dignified show of protest.

One of them, George Cross recipient Leonard Pullan, told the Herald he had seen Navy men lost in the Second World War because they did not have enough air support.

"We have to have a strong Air Force because if a country is good enough to live in, it's good enough to fight for."

Outside Parliament, Mr Burton said 10 years of neglect had forced the Government to make tough decisions about its defence forces.

It was not a popular explanation.

Mr English told the gathering that National was still completing its defence policy, but two things were certain: close consultation with Australia and a commitment to some form of air combat force.

The September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States had highlighted the need for a defence force, Mr English said. Though no one could have anticipated them, "you don't wait until your house has burned down before you buy your insurance".

In Parliament later, during opposition questioning about the privatisation of strategic commercial assets, Act MP Ken Shirley asked Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton why the Government was selling off the air combat wing.

Mr Anderton said the fighter wing was a financial liability, "and consequently we are getting rid of it".

nzherald.co.nz/defence