Colonel Jim Wood
Passed away 1 July 2017
1 Commando Company - MUR - 5 RVR - 1 RVR - Command and Staff College
It is with great sadness that we advise of the passing on Friday of COL Jim Wood. Jim was a fine officer and gentleman, a friend and mentor to many of us, and a great supporter of the Regiment and MURA. Our thoughts are with his wife Colleen and family. His funeral was held on Friday 7th July at the Collins Street Baptist Church.
John Hanlon wrote:- A sad message forwarded for your information. I recall working with Jim during the Big Desert camp in the early 70s. He was 2IC then and had the admin sorted to a T.
Jim was 2IC of 1RVR, during the Big Desert camp in the early to mid ‘70’s.
Over the period 1967-1984, he held a range of civilian appointments with the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs, with postings in Canberra, Melbourne, Jakarta (Embassy, 3rd/Sec 2nd, Political), Hong Kong (HQ British Forces) and Tokyo (Embassy, Counsellor, Political). He then settled in Melbourne and completed further post-graduate studies. Dr. Wood returned to secondary teaching in 1988 and retired in 2010 as Head of English at Fairhills High School. Since retirement, he had continued his research and writing on Australia’s military history and on behalf of those Australians who served in the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF).
He spent thirty seven years as a citizen soldier, enlisting in 1956 in 1 Commando Company in Sydney, qualifying for the Green Beret, as a parachutist and other specialist courses and was commissioned in 1961. As the first Army Reserve Officer to be awarded a Defence Fellowship, he spent a year on full time duty during which time he visited the US and Europe (UK, Sweden, West Germany) and produced a major study on Mobilisation An outline record of its origin and development in respect of Land Forces.
During his final army appointment, 1990-92, as Colonel Project Officer, Command and Staff College, Queenscliff, he updated his studies of mobilization in the light of the Gulf War in a volume ‘Case Studies in Army Mobilization’; his lectures to the College on ‘Mobilization, the Benefits of Experience’ and ‘Mobilization: The Gulf War in Prospect’, were published as SDSC Working Papers. Jim was a fine officer and gentleman, a friend and mentor to many, and a great supporter of the Regiment and MURA. His funeral was held on Friday 7th July at the Collins Street Baptist Church.
Thanks to Military History and Heritage Victoria
Inc.
http://www.mhhv.org.au/?p=5061