27 Facts About Alister Murdoch

Alister Murdoch served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1965 to 1969.

Alister Murdoch was involved in assessing the readiness of the General Dynamics F-111C for RAAF service.

Alister Murdoch retired from the Air Force in December 1969 and died in 1984.

Alister Murray Murdoch was born on 9 December 1912 in Elsternwick, Victoria, the son of engineer Thomas Murdoch and his wife Kathleen.

Alister Murdoch was one of four cadets sponsored that year by the Royal Australian Air Force, which did not at that stage have its own officer training college.

Alister Murdoch was commissioned in 1932 and later qualified as a flying instructor and seaplane pilot, undertaking navy cooperation and maritime patrol operations.

In December 1935, Flying Officer Alister Murdoch was selected to join an RAAF rescue mission for explorer Lincoln Ellsworth and his pilot, Herbert Hollick-Kenyon, who were presumed lost while journeying across the Antarctic.

Alister Murdoch spent the next two years on the staff of the Directorate of Operations and Intelligence at Air Force Headquarters, Melbourne.

The next year, Alister Murdoch accompanied the squadron to the Middle East, where it carried out anti-submarine and maritime strike operations.

Back in London in July 1942, Alister Murdoch was assigned to Combined Operations Headquarters, where he assisted in planning the Dieppe Raid before returning to Australia in 1943.

Alister Murdoch planned many of the command's bombing and mining operations in the South West Pacific Theatre, and was mentioned in despatches for his "distinguished service" in the role.

Alister Murdoch was posted as SASO to the Australian First Tactical Air Force in April 1945, replacing Group Captain William Gibson after the latter's dismissal in the wake of the "Morotai Mutiny", when the threatened resignations of eight of the RAAF's leading fighter aces caused a crisis in the formation's leadership.

Alister Murdoch became Commandant of RAAF College in June 1952, gaining promotion to air commodore.

In 1954, Alister Murdoch led a mission to examine potential new fighter, bomber, transport, and training aircraft for the RAAF, following a shift in defence funding towards the Air Force.

Alister Murdoch was seconded to the Department of Defence in January 1956 as Deputy Secretary.

In October 1959, Alister Murdoch was posted to London as Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff, and appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1960 New Year Honours.

Alister Murdoch returned to Australia in June 1962, when he became AOC Operational Command.

Air Marshal Alister Murdoch led the RAAF through the build-up of Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War beginning in the mid-1960s.

Alister Murdoch clashed with the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Sir John Wilton, over the latter's recommendation in mid-1965 to deploy two UH-1 Iroquois helicopters to Vietnam.

Alister Murdoch dismissed the idea on resourcing grounds, despite the fact that two thirds of the RAAF's UH-1 complement had been purchased for the express purpose of army cooperation.

Alister Murdoch further contended that helicopter operations in Malaysia had afforded the RAAF sufficient experience in the type of conditions they might face in Vietnam, though Australia's senior UH-1 pilot at the time considered that the former theatre offered "little if any hostile opposition, and there was none of the insertion and extraction of SAS patrols which was to become such an important part of the RAAF's Vietnam operations".

Wilton's successor as CGS, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, urged Alister Murdoch to procure specialised helicopter gunships such as the AH-1 HueyCobra for Vietnam, to support the more vulnerable troop-carrying "slicks".

Alister Murdoch largely ignored the suggestion, telling his staff to treat the Army's recommendation with a lesser priority than "anything we now have on our 'shopping list".

Alister Murdoch opposed sending Canberra jet bombers to Vietnam on what were later described in the official post-war history of the RAAF as "misleading" grounds that the type was unsuitable for a low-level strike and close support; their deployment went ahead in April 1967.

In late 1969, Alister Murdoch accompanied Secretary of Defence Sir Henry Bland to the United States to gain assurance of an adequate "safe life" for the F-111's swing-wing mechanism, amid the Australian government giving serious consideration to abandoning the program.

Alister Murdoch was succeeded by Air Marshal Colin Hannah, whom Murdoch had earlier recommended for the position of Commander Australian Forces Vietnam.

Alister Murdoch continued to exercise his interest in Australia's defence after he left the Air Force, joining in 1975 a group of pundits, including retired Air Vice Marshal Ian McLachlan, who promoted augmenting the country's arsenal with nuclear weaponry.