Lou HATTON
-
1973
Alumni Profiles
Description
National Service was my motivation for joining the Army. As you’d appreciate I was quite comfortable in the heady 70s and life was good.
But having tried everything to avoid the draft I was packed onto a bus in Brisbane and headed for 3TB Singleton. Funny how I remember the OAK milk factory over the bridge near Newcastle. Maybe it simply signalled a turning point in my life.
Any way you guys know the rest, dramatic haircuts, lots of shouting, being a short haired Army jerk in those days meant social isolation.
Well I sort of got to like it, and after recruit training headed up the hill for some Grunt famil. That’s where I met Pete Feeney even though we didn’t know our future pathway would be similar.
During that time we got the word from some Nacho Officers that we should apply for OCS which we did.
Then they cancelled National Service and we were told to pack our bags and go home. Or …. turn up at our posting which for me was 8 RAR.
I took the latter after all I was now a trained killer and quite simply was enjoying the ride.
Some time at Enoggera picking up pine cones on the golf course saw me increasingly disenchanted and when the RSM called for job nominations I thought Intelligence Duty man was down my alley.
After working for a short time (still picking up pine cones) my boss the IO, Dave Knaggs (whom I was to work with later) called me in to say I was off to OCS. It was actually OCS Wing Scheyville. So off south I went again. The trauma was greater this time!
The course was a bastardised 6 month OTU plus add-on. We started with 30 odd and ended with 18 (are the figures right guys?).
It was a special time and many fond (and stressful) memories.
Then off to join our fellow classmates at Portsea wearing our HJs (that didn’t last long). I recall the RSM calling me to attention across the parade ground and when stating my name made a clear statement that he would remember “Hat On”. The Herby took a dive quickly replaced by stock issue landing pad!
So then off into Army life and all its challenges and high points.
I think when Sue came to live with me (and Doug Webb) and we moved out of the mess it was one of those scandalous things that young people did in the 70s. So on I went doing all the usual stuff until HQ NORCOM where I was S02 Fishing to Frank Hickling (another mad fly fisher). Life was good. Oh yea
Tony your experience with Luigi was fleeting…mine more prolonged! None the less I look back on characters such as he and it’s such a shame he has moved on.
Then of course the boss asked where I would like to go after Darwin. Well quite simply I didn’t see why I had to go but apparently thems the rules. So off to Hobart for the last leg of my around Australia fishing excursion. Mind you as OC Hobart Log Company (shock horror to the cockroaches, a truckie in command!) a solid bout of CSP took the focus off the fishing. Anyway won that bid, got a kick in the arse for my effort (Detail McLachlin strikes again) and decided to move on to the big world of civilians.
The move went smoothly and I didn’t look back. Went into Resort Management with my sister and 11 years later stepped out after having built the business to one of the Sunshine Coast most successful resorts. Hard, stressful, rewarding.
Then decided to develop a small apartment complex in Cotton Tree right in the middle of the GFC! Talk about stress as our first ever personally designed home was clearly now controlled by the bank.
To cut a long story short we survived using all the skills learnt over a lifetime in the Army.
Now working on a mate’s business dealing in …obviously …Chicken Shit!
Seriously though it’s a leading edge product and we are about to expand around the world with current foot hold in India and China and Thailand happening. Check us out www.globalbossinternational.com
Yes Sue has tolerated me all these years and remains the most beautiful lady in the room. My daughter Alex has produced a grandson Kody and our son Aven lives with a lovely partner Ashleigh (soon to be wife) in Mt Isa (he drives one of those monster dump trucks).
My leisure remains fly-fishing and I maintain a lifestyle operation that sees me travelling occasionally www.flyfishdownunder.com
Of course I have hop skipped and jumped a zillion wonderful experiences and stories.
One thing I miss…. all of our old mates… it’s been too long!
