Air Marshal John William "Jake" Newham, AC was a senior commander of the Royal Australian Air Force.
15 Facts About John Newham
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John Newham served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1985 until 1987.
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John Newham was appointed Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in March 1984, and CAS in May the following year.
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John Newham underwent flying training at RAAF Base Point Cook, Victoria, and graduated as a sergeant pilot in July 1952.
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John Newham later recalled that his first sortie was as wingman to a Royal Air Force flight lieutenant: "We flew up past P'yongyang and he showed me enemy gun locations by arranging for them to shoot at us".
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The wing had been on garrison duty in Malta since July 1952, and John Newham was one of five Korean War veterans who replaced pilots posted back to Australia.
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John Newham married Jo Cranston in 1956; the couple had two daughters and a son.
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John Newham attended RAAF Staff College, Canberra, from January to December 1964.
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John Newham then served as Chief Flying Instructor at No 2 Operational Conversion Unit at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales, taking temporary command of the unit as a squadron leader from July 1965 to April 1966.
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In 1971, John Newham was appointed commanding officer of the Aircraft Research and Development Unit.
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John Newham later recalled that "our air force cred went up in the area and in the world with that aeroplane".
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John Newham was promoted air commodore in 1976 and became Senior Air Staff Officer at OPCOM, serving through the following year.
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In 1982 he was posted to the United States as the Head of Australian Defence Staff in Washington, DC Returning to Australia, John Newham became Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in March 1984.
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John Newham initially endorsed the Federal government's 1986 Review of Australia's Defence Capabilities, otherwise known as the Dibb Report, but shortly afterwards publicly criticised its "understanding of the application of air power" and "debatable judgments", especially its lukewarm attitude to the employment of the F-111s for strategic strike.
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John Newham died on 27 December 2022, at the age of 92.