Both celebrated a century in business this year.

Acting sergeant Smith became one of just 130 Australians to receive the air forces' Chief of the Air Force's Centenary Coin, and the Warrant Officer of the Air Force's Coin, marking them as 100-year-old air force veteran, on Friday.

Incredibly there are actually two locals who will receive the rare honour. Walcha's Walter Forster will receive his on Saturday.

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Mrs Smith told the Leader of her four-year career in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, served in Townsville and Sydney.

"We did nearly everything," she said.

"The men went away fighting and we sort of took over doing everything.

"I was in 'R Group', all my bosses were chemists, we made 44-gallon drums of cough mixture and we had all the instruments that we sent to hospitals. It was a lovely place to work, really."

It was a heady time, when the usual restrictions on "women's work" and "men's work" collapsed in the face of military necessity.

Acting sergeant Smith not only got a rank and responsibility, but a uniform, trousers and overalls - and a group of five friends she never forgot for the rest of their lives.

"It was different somehow, the ones that you were in camp with," she said.

"It was a very close connection to them."

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Mrs Smith boasts 5 children, 13 grandchildren and 17 grandchildren. She turned 100 in February, briefly after the RAAF, which was born on March 31, 1921.

Mr Foster, another centenarian, was a trained pharmacist by the start of WW2, but deliberately did not register his qualification in order to be eligible to serve as a flyer in the war. He was a wireless operator and gunner on B-24 Liberators in the North Sea and Scotland area.

Post-war, he was appointed to serve as a chief pharmacist at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; for two years he helped survivors recover from a range of often severe health complaints deliberately caused as part of the Holocaust. More than 50,000 people were murdered at Bergen-Belson. He later served as a pharmacist at the Nuremburg Trials.

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Flight Lieutenant Dave Slattery and Sergeant Peta-Ann Thompson travelled up from Newcastle to present the award.

"It has been a truly humbling program to be part of," she said.

"There's been tears and laughter, some of the stories have been very heartwarming, and very sad."

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