Walking on Air
By Lin Ferguson
Wanganui Chronicle
Flight Lieutenant Barbara Finlayson has a job in a million.
FLTLT Barbara Finlayson
“I mean, how great is a job when you can go and live in the Sinai Desert for six months with the peacekeeping force and represent your country? It doesn’t come any better than that.”
Now her new position at Ohakea also has her bubbling with enthusiasm.
Appointed the flight commander of public relations and education at Ohakea air base, FLTLT Finlayson said her almost three years in the force had been incredible.
Until 2007 she was careers adviser at a Catholic secondary school in Invercargill. “My career was in teaching, which I also loved.”
It was a visit with a group of 45 school career advisers from all over New Zealand to Woodbourne and Ohakea air bases in 2006 that had changed her path completely, she said.
And it all started with a throwaway remark. During their tour around Ohakea she was so impressed she said to one officer: “Thirty years ago this would have been me. I would have been in, boots and all.”
The officer replied: “Well we just might be interested in you.”
“At 49, I thought I was way over the hill for a life in the forces,” FLTLT Finlayson said.
But she took the officer at his word and applied for officer training school.
“I was the oldest recruit.”
She found the physical training gruelling.
“Well, getting up at 4 am, for example, and running up hills with a heavy pack before breakfast ... probably not too difficult if you’re a young thing.”
Last year she applied for a six-month secondment to the Sinai Desert.
“I was selected and, believe me, it was amazing.”
As aide de camp to the Norwegian commander of the multi-national peacekeeping force, it was one of the most extraordinary experiences of her life, she said.
“I was living alongside officers from all the other countries, including Canada, Italy, Australia, the United States and Fiji, which was always fantastic and interesting.”
Arranging a birthday party for the boss on the top of Mt Sinai, complete with a cake and candles, flying about in the American Black Hawk helicopters, or travelling in armoured vehicles was also great, she said.
Working as education officer and adviser for all the young airmen and women at Ohakea is also a challenge she relishes.
“It’s that whole support thing and helping these young men and women achieve their very best. I find it very satisfying.”