Howard Hendrick DFC, OAM, Legion D'Honneur (France) was born on 2 October 1923, the son of a soldier settler, Tom Hendrick, and his English war bride Laura. They had taken a solder-settler's fruit block in South Australia's Riverland. He attended primary and secondary school at Renmark On ANZAC Day 1942, at the age of 18, he joined the RAAF and departed for induction training at No. 4 Initial Training School at Mt Breckan in Victor Harbor. Noting there was not an aircraft to be seen, he began the grind of ground school and streaming of students based on their academic results and aptitudes. On 15 August, Howard and 22 others were assigned to No 1. Elementary Flying School Parafield, north of Adelaide. At last! Aircraft everywhere, particularly the DH 82 Tiger Moth, the basic trainer of the Empire Air Training Scheme. It was to be another month before anything of interest occurred; "hurry up and wait' the catch cry of the military, was in force. At the EFTS trainees needed to go solo within ten hours of Flying Training. If they didn't, they would be re-mustered. Overcoming an initial bout of airsickness, Howard progressed at the requisite rate and having gone solo and completed the course, he was selected to go to to No. 7 Service Flying Training School in Deniliquin NSW At Deniliquin, he flew CAC Wirraway Trainers, in preparation for flying single seat fighter aircraft in due course. Having duly obtained his 'wings', on 11 April 1943, he was posted to England to complete his training as a fighter pilot. In the UK, he found himself languishing in a personnel depot waiting for a Fighter Conversion course. Priorities had changed and the need was for bomber crews. An opportunity presented itself and he was on his way to a course to train on multi-engine aircraft. He would be destined to fly Lancasters and Halifaxes in the European war zone, and having completed the multi-engine training, he then went through 'Heavy Conversion' on the Lancaster and then to Operational Training Unit, thus retraining as a bomber pilot. One of the 'rituals' at OTU was the process of 'crewing up', where crews more or less selected each other. They then learned to fly as a team in preparation to share their fate in an operational squadron. Eventually, they were posted to No. 460 Squadron where he and his crew took their place in the Squadron roster. No.460 was the oldest of the Australian 'Article XV' Squadrons and was made up of Australian pilots and crews from the Dominions. From there, Howard and his crew went to war. By this stage, it was October 1944. During the next few months, they flew raids over France and Germany, and along the way he met WAAF Sergeant Winefried Nugent, who worked in the Operations section of the base. Like his father before him formed a relationship with the woman who would become his 'war bride'. The crew of 'B' for Baker completed 30 raids (a tour of ops) with the same crew. Relatively few crews completed a tour 'intact'. Loss rates were high. Nearly 50% of Bomber Command personnel lost their lives during the course of the war. His next role was as a Flying Instructor until the end of the war at No. 667 Conversion Unit, where he taught trainee pilots how to fly the Lancaster. After the war, wanting to keep flying, Howard completed further training to become a commercial pilot with British Airways where he flew scheduled routes between London, Johannesburg and Sydney. After four years with BA, Howard returned to Australia to take up a Soldier Settler block in Loxton, where he and his family worked and resided for more than 60 years, having come full circle Finally retiring at aged 86 Howard is a regular guest speaker at Loxton High School, and has had his recollections recorded on ABC Radio, with these oral histories part of the South Australian State Library collection. On Australia Day in 2016, Loxton Waikerie District Council named him Loxton Citizen of the Year 2016. At 92, Howard was still enjoying a monthly Jabiru solo flight (with the relevant ‘restrictions’) at his local Aero Club. He said "it keeps my mind active"! This summary of Howard's biography was compiled by Steve Larkins 2016. To read the full account of Howard's memoir copy and paste this link into your browser. https://images.unsungheroesaustralia.com.au/Hendrick+memoir.pdf