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Ray Seaver, 72

April 25, 2004

KOREA (1950-1953

What Ray Seaver feared most when flying in Korea was ploughing his plane into the ground. "It was dead easy diving towards enemy targets," he said, "but the trick was to remember to pull out of dives before the plane's momentum made it impossible.

"We were shot at often by anti-aircraft cannons, but that was not the main danger. Some of our pilots died when they hit the ground when firing rockets into valleys after becoming mesmerised by their targets and pulling out far too late. Their plane's inertia was too great.

"Others pilots left their climb out of valleys too long and ended up flying their plane into hills."

Of the 339 Australians killed fighting communists in Korea, 30 were pilots, the equivalent of a squadron, he said.

His plane "only got hit by small-arms fire", he said, "because I stayed clear of major fire". But others were not so lucky. "My wing man, Don Pingstone, flying his plane next to mine, got shot down and was taken prisoner of war," he said. "He parachuted down all right but was badly treated by the communists. I had a lucky war really."

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Enlisting "for adventure" at 19 while studying electrical engineering at Lithgow Technical College, Mr Seaver, of Sydney, joined 77 Squadron, RAAF, and flew 101 combat actions over North Korea in his Gloster Meteor Mark 8. Using multiple rocket attacks of 16 rockets, his targets were mainly troop concentrations, airfields, power stations, dams and bridges, keeping communists off roads and breaking supply lines. After the war he married, provided aerial support establishing Mawson Base in Antarctica and flew and trained pilots for Qantas for 30 years.