ASCO's Pay Plans

Twelve dollars a week won’t get you anywhere today. Back in 1967, as a first year RAAF apprentice, that was what we were paid, and it didn’t go much further back then.

Not that our needs were great - our meals and board were provided for a small deduction from our pay, and we were issued with our uniforms and overalls. During our first six weeks we were confined to Base. After that we were allowed into town, but only on Friday after stand down, Saturday and Sunday with strict curfews of 2200 or 2300 hours. So we needed money for the little luxuries - and, of course, entertainment.

These were primitive days. No Ipads, internet, Facebook. There may have been a black and white TV set in the Apprentice Club, but we had none in barracks. My communication with the world outside the Base was via my National Panasonic 8 transistor radio. This was a Christmas present from Mum and Dad and in those days I am sure it must have been rather expensive for them. Dad’s brother-in-law, Uncle Stan, had helped ease the pain by buying it cheaper in Sydney than was possible on the Clarence.

The only radio station that gave anything like reasonable reception was 2WG. This brought a mix of news, sport, weather and other topics of interest to the region. Sixteen year old RAAF apprentices did not however have a passion for all the news of sheep and cattle sales and other matters of interest to the agricultural community. I do however remember listening to a Rugby League test between Australia and England on their shores at some obscene hour of the morning.

That’s where ASCO - the Australian Services Canteen Organisation - came to the rescue. As well as providing an on-base canteen service with things like milkshakes, burgers, snacks they provided a range of goods we could purchase on a six or 12 pay plan. I can’t remember how their prices compared to off base but the pay plans didn’t charge interest.

I remember buying two items on the system without remembering if I used the six or twelve pay plan. One was a National open reel tape recorder with something like a 5 inch or smaller tape reel. Somehow I managed to record music on to this either from the radio or from the records of mates. Normie Rowes ‘Going Home’ was released in April 1967 and I played this over and over in the lead up to our mid-year leave period when we were allowed to return home for two weeks. My friend from school Noel Green had quite a record collection and I used this time and the quietness of his lounge room to record a reasonable collection of music.

It wasn’t all that long ago that I came across the recorder in my garage. It was still packed in it original box. The tape was brittle and one of the tape rollers was broken so it made its way into landfill.

The other purchase was a Gevarm A6 semi automatic .22 rifle with a 6 round magazine and a telescopic sight. After I left Wagga I left this with Dad so he could use it on the farm and he eventually surrendered it to the Police when the gun laws were changed.

The rifle however was a bit of a problem. It was against the rules for us to keep firearms in the barracks and we were meant to deposit them in the Base Armoury for safe keeping. It was not a rule I and others were inclined to keep however and I ended up with two shotguns as well as the rifle before I left Wagga - a 12 gauge and a 410. I shared a room with three others and we all had firearms. We found a place to secure them above our wardrobes and despite numerous raids by the Service Police looking for contraband they never found them.

It amazes me looking back how casual we were considering the consequences of getting caught. Not long into the second half of my first year a group of us walked casually down the railway track that ran through the Base to go shooting in the farming area around the Base. When we finished we walked back the same way. If we wanted to go out shooting on the weekends we would carry the rifles and guns to a car and I can’t remember taking any real measures to avoid detection. Perhaps it was simply that as teenagers we felt bullet proof - no pun intended.

I did eventually come unstuck though. My roommates and I had been on a weekend shooting trip and on return I left my rifle tucked under the bench seat of my mates car, thinking no more about it. However it finally became dislodged and was found by the Service Police (Spits we called them) on a snooping trip around the car park. We were sitting in an instructional period when they came and called my mate out, then a few minutes later, me. As a result he got 5 days confined to barracks, I got ten. The rifle of course ended up in the Armoury and probably stayed there till we graduated. Not that I really needed it, I still had the shot guns.

ASCO has operated under different names since being established in 1915 and continues to this day. It is now known as the Army and Air Force Canteen Service, a not-for-profit organisation operating in the interests of the welfare of soldiers, airmen & airwomen.