WWII veteran mourns mates lost in mission he missed due to wedding
A Queensland WWII veteran has shared the remarkable love story that saved him from the perils that claimed the lives of a dozen of his crew mates. LEST WE FORGET
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It was his marriage to Muriel which saved him on that day, June 21 1942, when the RAAF gave him a day off to tie the knot, but dispatched one dozen of his crew mates on a search and rescue mission.
His mates never came back.
Richard Thomas Scott (Mick) lived on, long enough to be anticipating his 105th birthday this August.
“I’m getting a bit doddery,’’ he admitted this week from his Caloundra life.
“But I still enjoy life.
“I still have a few beers at the (Caloundra Power Boat) club.’’
The once youthful stock man who left his horse in Muttaburra, took a train to Brisbane and signed up for war on February 5 1940, is one of an increasingly rare breed of World War II veterans still soldiering on across Australia.
The Department of Veterans Affairs can never come up with an exact number of surviving World War II veterans, much less combat veterans.
But by the end of next year their number will almost certainly have dropped to below 1000.
Mick was born in Muttaburra western Queensland on 3 August 1920 and grew up in the Muttaburra area, working as a stockman at the outbreak of World War II in September 1939.
He took the train to Brisbane leaving his horse behind and joined his parents who had recently purchased a corner store at Morningside.
After spending Christmas with mum and dad he took a train to Laverton Victoria where he formally enlisted on February 5 1940 and was later assigned to the 10th Squadron.
He was deployed to Great Britain where he served as a tail gunner on the Sunderland Flying Boats, completing missions in Europe, the Mediterranean and North Africa.
”We were looking for submarines some of the time,’’ he said, but had no desire to talk about the horrors of combat.
His own war miracle came when he met Muriel Trott, a Welsh girl, and asked her to marry him.
She accepted and Mick had his entire crew on the wedding guest list.
But his mates couldn’t attend because the RAAF needed them to go and find a missing plane.
Had he gone with them, he too would have joined the nearly 30,000 names lost during the war.
Instead he stayed mainly with the ground crews during the rest of the war, living at Milford Haven near Pembroke Dock and Plymouth where he was based, and bringing two kids into the world, son Rick in August 1943 and daughter Janet in May 1945.
He lived a full and productive life, farming around the Sunshine Coast and oversaw a hugely successful family which included the one time federal member for Oxley Les Scott and playing executive roles in the RSL.
Anzac Day has always met a lot to him and he was marching along with the best of them even after he passed the 100th birthday milestone.
But he might accept a ride today.
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