Ron Butterworth recounts his experiences during WWII

This time, it's on a man who got away with punishment during the war and was even better off.

Former Goulburn High School teacher Ron Butterworth was 17 when he attempted to join the airforce, but he wasn't even allowed to train, so he had to settle for something else.

"I wanted to be in the airforce and I joined the air training corps, but I failed because I was colour blind," Mr Butterworth said.

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"They suggested I become a wireless operator on the ground, so that's what I did.

"There was someone running a morse code school.

"I went to that and gained a fair bit of skill by the time I turned 18."

He started his WWII journey in Australia before ending in Papua New Guinea.

"I spent six months in Melbourne and then, because I was still 18, I couldn't be posted overseas, so I went to Narrandera," he said.

"I was then moved across to Nowra which was the operational base for the airforce.

"When I turned 19, I went to Camden where they were putting together a Kittyhawk squadron to go to New Guinea.

"My first post was Kiriwina which was where the Kittyhawk squadron was based.

"Then I was transferred to Goodenough Island before taken by cargo boat to Los Negros Island.

"I went on leave, went back there and was put in a radar unit, which was where I was when the war ended."

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Mr Butterworth encountered two problems during the war.

The first was dengue fever which he recovered from.

The other was when he was charged with being absent without leave for nine days.

However, the consequence was quite pleasant.

"When I was coming home on leave, I had been given six days of travel flight to get back to Sydney," he said.

"There was very heavy rain on the Queensland coast and the railway line was cut.

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"I ended up reporting back nine days after I should have.

"My penalty was nine days leave and nine days pay forfeited and I had to spend two weeks confined to barracks.

"It worked out really well because I was put in the officers' kitchen.

"We prepared meals for the officers and what they had for dinner, we had for dinner too.

"The golden lining was that when I got back to the islands, I discovered the charges had sort of disappeared."

Ron Butterworth and nine other veterans were pleasantly surprised with a visit by the Governor General on Thursday, August 13.

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