ASBURY, Paul Desmond
public servant, army officer, potential and actual retiree 1947-

Paul Asbury was born in Albury 1947, he attended Christian Brothers College in Albury and then CBC St Kilda and its cadet unit until 1963.  He worked for the Australian Tax Office in Melbourne for the next three years, studied accountancy at night school and was an officer cadet of 3 Div OCTU.  This experience in both the Public Service and OCTU confirmed his interest in the Regular Army as a career.

He enlisted in the ARA in 1967 and in December was commissioned from OCS Portsea into RAASC until transferred to RACT in 1973.  OCS and a six-month young officers course in Puckapunyal were followed by two years as 2IC 3 Tpt Pl at Brisbane then Townsville. In October 1969, while honeymooning in South Australia, he was suddenly posted as 2IC of 85 Tpt Pl at Nui Dat, South Vietnam.  Promoted to captain in December 1970 on his return to Australia, he became an instructor at the RAASC Centre Transport Wing Puckapunyal. This was followed 1972-73 as Adjutant at the Tropical Trials Establishment, Innisfail where he was involved with the Medium Tank Trials (M60/Leopard) as well other fascinating trials involving armies from other countries, wjth the side benefits of Army life at Cowley Beach.

From January 1973 until December 1974, he was the SO3 Coord at DST and then DTpt in AHQ Canberra. He in DTpt when it relocated to Melbourne as part of the newly formed HQ Log Comd.

In 1974 Asbury was posted as exchange instructor at the Army School of Transport at Longmoor UK, then SO3 Tpt on HQ 1 (BR) Corps in Germany until return to Australia in 1977.  All this, and also being paid to play tennis all over the UK for the RCT, made him wonder when the dream would stop: that dream burst on return to Canberra as SO3 then SO2 Org, at DMovT, Army Office until December 1979.  In January 1980 he became 2ic 1 Div Tpt Regt Enoggera, in 1982 attended the Army Command and Staff College Queenscliff, then two years as SO2 Ops/Plans HQ Log Comd. On promotion to lieutenant colonel in 1985 he became SO1 Pers HQ Log Comd.

Posted as CO 1 ATSR RAAF Richmond in 1986, he discovered he had signed for a very new but very flat Unimog truck after it had un-hooked itself from a CH47 Chinook.  He remained there until January 1989 and was sorry to leave the people who had made his job much easier than he deserved.  After a short sojourn in the Blue Mountains as CO 1 GL Group, Air Headquarters RAAF Glenbrook, when 1 ATSR had no complaints on the number of air hours allotted to it, he spent 1990-92 as CTMO 1 MD, with a three month break as Admin Comd of NQ Area in Townsville, and finally until early 1993 was SO1 Brisbane Log Group Bulimba.

Apart from SVN and UK/Germany, he considers his best postings were with 1 ATSR, 1 GL Group and 1 Div Tpt Regt. His early accountancy training was well hidden and not once did he end up as a mess treasurer in 26 years service.

Paul married Anne in October 1969, their children Robyn and Daniel. He is a happily retired grandfather living at Noosa who likes to fish in his spare time from his hobbies – boating, computing and maintaining contact by email with many old soldiers with whom he enjoyed serving. He is also web assistant for http://www.ocsportsea.com/. He also often fondly remembers all his postings to field units and those other units with real soldiers in them.