These profiles and stories were donated to the RAAF Museum by the Gold Coast Branch of the Air Crew Association.

Service Profile: Allan Salisbury

Allan William Salisbury joined the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1951 and after training served as an instrument fitter for three years.

In 1954 he trained as a Signaller (S) at the RAAF School of Radio and served in that capacity until 1967 when changes in aircraft design and advances in technology caused significant alterations in crew composition, particularly in new maritime aircraft.

Due to the RAAF inventory of aircraft being updated, the new aircrew position of Air Electronics Officer (AEO) was born.

Allan was present at that birth, so he retrained as an AEO in 1967 at VP31 USN Moffett Field, California, USA, and held that aircrew category for the rest of his service.

Aircrew officers, as members of the General Duties (GD) Branch, were periodically posted to non-flying appointments, and one of Allan's Staff Appointments was to the (then) Department of Air as a member of the Air Force Intelligence Branch from 1965 to 1967.

In 1968 he was posted as Staff Officer Air Electronics to the Australian Joint Anti-Submarine School at Naval Air Station, Nowra, NSW. That was followed in 1971 by an appointment as Command Air Electronics Officer at the (then) Headquarters Operational Command, Glenbrook, in the lower Blue Mountains.

Allan was posted to the RAAF Staff College at RAAF Base Fairbairn in 1973, graduating (PSC) at the end of that year. In 1974 he completed a Special Operations Course.

During his flying career, Allan flew as a crew member in long- nosed Lincolns, Dakotas, P-2E Neptunes and P-3 Orions. His flying postings included No. 2 Air Trials Unit, School of Air Navigation, No. 10 Squadron and No. 11 Squadron.

Before his retirement as a Wing Commander in 1975, Allan held the appointment of Air (1) at Department of Defence (Air), Canberra, and was a member of the P-3C–Nimrod Evaluation Team.