Old mates reunited
Published: August 22, 2005
THEY slept side by side during basic training in World War 11, became great mates and looked out for each other.
But after being posted to different areas of the Pacific in the war against Japan, old buddies Ray Golland and Bob Adam lost contact.
Sixty-three years later, on Saturday morning, the diggers were reunited in Orange for the first time since leaving Australia in 1942.
Both diggers served in one of four Australian heavy wireless units after they had enlisted with some knowledge of morse code and were assigned to communications training.
Mr Golland was already a serving Militia (now Army Reserve) member using morse code and Mr Adam had learned the communication technique at a course run by the local postmaster in his home town of Temora.
The weekend reunion of the two ‘old mates’ might never have happened but for a chance conversation at Toll Transport where their sons Bill Golland and Bruce Adam have worked together for six years, unaware their fathers had forged a special bond during World War 11.
“Bill and I were talking about what we would be doing on Anzac Day,” Bruce Adam said.
“We talked about what our fathers did in the war and after several phone calls we realised they knew each other,” Bill Golland said.
“There were plenty of phone calls after that to organise to get them together,” Bruce Adam said.
The diggers and their families met at Wontama aged care facility in Orange where Mr Golland is a resident.
The ex-servicemen said they would not have recognised each other had their sons not been with them.
“He said I looked a bit older than the last time he saw me,” Mr Adam quipped.
It wasn’t long before both men were recounting their experiences together at the Bonegilla training camp.
“I remember when I was sick once Bob covered for me at roll call - he just answered for me.
“That’s the way it was then - you had to have a mate, someone to look out for you,” Mr Golland said.
Both men worked with the latest in communications technology, sending morse code during the war and say they marvel at the advances in communications, such as mobile telephones.
Bob Adam now lives in Carlingford in north-west Sydney and travelled to Orange for Saturday’s reunion with Ray Golland.
Ray Golland said he recalled reading last year that the Australian Army no longer used any form of morse code for communication.
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