'Didn't ever think I'd see Australia again': War veteran turns 100

Mr Vale was just 18 when he joined the air force and at 19 he was sent overseas.

"I had some lucky escapes," he said.

"I didn't ever think I would see Australia again.

"I was fortunate to come home again."

As an armourer, Mr Vale's job was to load planes with ammunition and service the guns, and he vividly recalls the first night after he landed at the Bomana airstrip in Port Moresby in 1943.

Given a pick and shovel, the new arrivals were told to dig a trench because it was a full moon and they were expecting an air raid. That night, bombs fell on the airstrip.

He was one of eight that was to go on a mission to establish a new base. On the way back, the plane was shot down and everyone onboard was killed.

"I should have been on that plane."

But a bout of dysentery had instead left Mr Vale in hospital for 10 days.

Another time while collecting a load of bombs, he got washed down the Laloki River and had to be saved.

Mr Vale was also injured unloading a plane.

"I closed the hatchet up on the wing and I slipped and fell off the wing and landed on the ground," he said.

"I couldn't stand up."

Mr Vale had to wait hours to be seen, and has had trouble with his back and hip ever since.

The Department of Veterans' Affairs paid tribute to the veteran on his birthday saying during his almost two years of active service in PNG and elsewhere in Asia, Mr Vale worked on the Wirraway, Boomerang and Kittyhawk fighters to arm the aircraft for battle.

Born in Mortlake, Mr Vale worked on a sheep station until he was 18 when he joined the air force.

After two years in active service, he returned to Mortlake and applied for a soldier settlement block but there was a three-year wait.

Mr Vale said getting a soldier settlement block "was as good as winning Tatts they used to say".

He was sent to Dookie where he met Margaret and the pair had decided to get married.

"I had to get a job," Mr Vale said.

Instead, on the urging of his brother-in-law, he joined the police force.

After eight years, he went into business with his brother at a garage in Mortlake where his love of cars grew.

"I owned 70 cars - not all at once," he said.

Usually he would only have two or three at a time.

Rovers were among his favourite. After 30 years at the garage, he retired in 1985.

Travelling the world was something he also loved to do. He has been overseas 18 times, many of those trips to visit his son James when he worked in Formula One racing as a mechanic and later as team manager for Jordan.

Mr Vale said during his son's time as a mechanic for the likes of Ralf Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, he got to meet many of the sport's top drivers.

He was a long-time member of Mortlake's RSL.

Mr Vale celebrated his 100^th birthday on Monday, April 15, 2024 with his family which includes five children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.