Introducing Wing Commander (retired) Michael (Mick) Stone.  Mick joined the Air Force as an apprentice in 1968.  He became an electrical fitter at Williamtown working on Mirage and Sabre aircraft.   In 1971, Mick went to Butterworth Malaysia working on Search and Rescue Hueys. This was his first involvement with helicopter aircrew: most were Vietnam veterans.

In 1975, Mick was selected for pilot training. He was then posted to United Nations Emergency Force 2 flying helicopters on peacekeeping duties in the Sinai Desert.

After that Mick continued flying helicopters in Australia until he was trained as a flying Instructor for new pilots. He then became a Flying Instructor on Hueys and the newly introduced Squirrel chopper.

In 1985, there were more helicopter adventures in the Sinai Desert but this time as an instructor.

Following this, Mick was posted to Fort Rucker Alabama as one of the first 2 Black Hawk instructors and then to introduce that helicopter into the RAAF at 9 Squadron.

Mick resigned from the Air Force in 1990 and took up a position with Lloyd Helicopters as a Search and Rescue captain at Williamtown flying Bell 212 helicopters.  Mick was recruited to the Active Reserve as an Operations officer and Range Safety Officer.

In October 2001, Mick re-joined the Air Force and took up various position in the Air Transport world including Commanding Officer 285 SQN Richmond.  285SQN was a new concept  The squadron’s responsibility was to conduct all training, both ground and aircrew, that occurred at Richmond.

Age retirement forced Mick to leave the Air Force in April 2006.  He was again recruited for full time service in 2007 as Operations Officer C130s  in Iraq and Afghanistan.  

He was farewelled from the RAAF on 1 April 2018, 50 years and 2 1⁄2 months after joining and 1 day before his 67th birthday.