Tamworth warrant officer's 30-year career draws to a close

It’s been “a very varied and interesting job” for Warrant Officer Andrew Rowley, but his time in the Royal Australian Air Force is drawing to a close.

After a 30-year career, he will work his last day on Friday at the Australian Defence Force Basic Flying Training School – but Tamworth gets to keep him.

WO Rowley said that, after new postings about every three years, it was time to stay put.

He wasn’t sure what his next career move would be, but he was “looking forward to the challenge of the future”.

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WO Rowley’s time with the airforce began when he was a teen in Victoria in 1988.

“It sounds a bit corny, but I just wanted to serve,” he said.

He became first an aviation rescue firefighter and worked his way through ranks and roles on various RAAF bases, including senior fireman – where he ran crews doing “any type of firefighting you can think about: scrub, buildings, car accidents, urban search and rescue, aviation rescue and firefighting” – to the course director of the Security and Fire (Training) School at Wagga Wagga.

He was posted to Tamworth at the end of 2015, taking on the triple role of warrant officer, unit security officer and unit safety adviser.

Civilians would know him mainly through the first role, in which he’s responsible for protocol, discipline and standards, both in and out of the school grounds.

A warrant officer could ensure representatives are in proper uniform during Anzac marches, through to being “for want of a better word, the fixer” during a royal visit, as he was in 2014 at Amberley, ensuring the VIPs had honour guards and escorts, among other protocols.

One of his “most sobering and sad” duties was, as the base WO at Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan, running ramp services for fallen service men or women: five Australians and 30 allies.

“Their senior soldier is always with the person after they’ve died, and they have someone with them for that entire time … My role was much less than that: the ceremonial and patriotic stuff around it,” he said.

However, it was still “gut wrenching to go through all that process from identifying them to putting them in coffins to having them sent back home”.

WO Rowley said expectations of air force members were “very high” – not only from within the airforce but from civilians.

Observing ceremony and protocol was not only part of air force and wider military tradition; it also gave members an “esprit de corps” that was valued and valuable in an often very dangerous role.

“There are not many places or jobs where they expect you to put your life on the line as part of the job,” he said.

“Even as civilian firefighters, we’re mad buggers who run towards the fire when everyone else runs away – in the military you run towards danger and they’re probably going to try and kill you.”

WO Rowley said he and his wife had chosen to settle in Tamworth because it wasn’t too big a city, but still had “all the services your could hope for”, along with good community spirit.