Lieutenant-Commander Adrian Kenneth Wait

Adrian Kenneth Wait of Elizabeth Bay was born on 10 December 1941 and died on 5 October 2013. See “SMH” Wednesday 9 October for details. Funeral to be held at Delhi Road, North Ryde, 1330 Monday 14 October. Partner of Di and father of Marc.  Husband of Lynne (deceased). Adrian entered the RANC in 1958.

 He later served in HMAS Teal during Confrontation. His commanding officer was awarded the DSC for an incident with Indonesian infiltrators in December 1964. As an officer of the watch, Adrian said, with the CO not on the bridge then, he returned fire with a Bren gun personally killing if not injuring several of the raiders. One gun number, in the understandable instincts of self-preservation, ducked for cover in the face of incoming fire from light automatic weapons, again Adrian said.

 Some $5, 000 of foreign currency was captured – some of it being forged. Unsure of the amount of smuggled drugs which were also confiscated. The bodies and captured enemy were surrendered to the Singapore Marine Police next day. It is not known if any of the recovered booty was partly appropriated to fund a wake in memory of their departed combatants who had, in fact, fired at Teal on being firstly challenged off St. John’s Island. In fairness to all, only those onboard can confirm these circumstances experienced at the time onboard during the incursion.

The CO had a strong ambition to be a pilot in the Fleet Air Arm which was still actively recruiting naval aviators but he was withdrawn from flying training and thus, in not meeting the expected standards, he was unable to earn his wings. To his credit, on resignation as a newly promoted lieutenant-commander, in mid-1966, the CO later gained his wings as a civilian pilot and assumed a long career as a QANTAS captain flying a respectable range of aircraft in their commercial air fleet inventory.  

            Adrian later served during the Vietnam War.   On early resignation, he embarked on a highly successful business career. He had been ill for some time.