22 Facts About Frank Bladin

Frank Bladin transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1923, and learned to fly at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria.

Frank Bladin became Air Officer Commanding North-Western Area in March 1942, following the first Japanese air raids on Darwin, Northern Territory.

Frank Bladin was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire the same year.

Frank Bladin's parents refused their permission, and he instead entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1917.

In January 1923 Frank Bladin transferred to the recently established Royal Australian Air Force as a flying officer.

One of Frank Bladin's other classmates on the course was a 1919 graduate of the Royal Australian Naval College, Sub-Lieutenant Joe Hewitt.

Frank Bladin was posted to Britain in 1929 to attend RAF Staff College, Andover, and wrote an article on Empire air defence in 1931 for Royal Air Force Quarterly, one of the few published pieces of work on air power produced by RAAF officers in the pre-war years.

Frank Bladin found that the unit, flying Westland Wapitis and Hawker Demons out of RAAF Station Laverton in Victoria, "had not operated under field conditions away from its brick hangars and concrete tarmac since its inception some eight years previous".

Frank Bladin proceeded to change this, deploying the squadron 300 miles away to Cootamundra in rural New South Wales, where he "borrowed a portion of a sheep station from a friend so that the pilots could carry out their bombing practice" over a two-week period commencing in late November 1935.

Frank Bladin modelled the squadron's training course on that of Duntroon, foreshadowing instruction at the Air Force's own cadet institute, RAAF College, which would be established in 1947.

Frank Bladin became, in the words of historian Alan Stephens, "the RAAF's outstanding area commander of the war", and earned distinction as the first Australian decorated by the United States in the Pacific theatre of operations when he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry.

Frank Bladin often employed his own judgement in the selection of targets, as detailed directives from superior headquarters were not always forthcoming.

Frank Bladin complained to his superior, Air Vice-Marshal Bill Bostock, that the "alarmist tendency of the press and radio references was having a bad effect on the combat pilots".

Frank Bladin ordered an immediate Beaufighter strike led by Wing Commander Charles Read against Penfui airfield, on the assumption that this was where the Japanese raiders were based; four aircraft were destroyed on the ground.

When Frank Bladin handed over North-Western Area to Air Vice-Marshal Adrian Cole in July 1943, the latter reported that his new command was "well organised, keen and in good shape".

Frank Bladin would have replaced Bostock, who was facing disciplinary action for refusing to comply with directives from the Air Board, the RAAF's controlling body, but in the end the Australian government made no change to command arrangements.

Frank Bladin's next posting was to Kure, Japan, in January 1946, as chief of staff to Lieutenant General John Northcott, commander of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.

Frank Bladin succeeded Hewitt, and worked to consolidate the innovations in Air Force education and training that the latter had initiated.

Frank Bladin was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the King's Birthday Honours announced in June 1950.

In 1951, inspired by a similar initiative in state education, Frank Bladin sponsored a move to have RAAF education officers augment their degree qualifications with formal teaching credentials.

Shortly after leaving the Air Force, Frank Bladin donated an eponymous trophy for the service's best-performing Avro Lincoln unit in bombing and aerial gunnery competition.

Frank Bladin ran a grazing property, which he named Adastra, at Yass, just north of the Australian Capital Territory.