Thank you for correcting the text in this article. Your corrections improve Papers Past searches for everyone. See the latest corrections.

This article contains searchable text which was automatically generated and may contain errors. Join the community and correct any errors you spot to help us improve Papers Past.

Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image
Article image

ADMITTED TO THE ROYAL AIR FORCE.

jOOOSrCKRATUI/ATIQISrS TO HUTT BOY

The following interesting account of the severe test candidates for the R.AIF aTe subjected to has been received from Mr. Geoff Jarman, a former prominent memfber of the Hutt Rugby1 team. "The great day has come and gone, and I am. accepted for entry in the J&.A.F—so passes a period of intense anxiety for yours truly. "Yesterday I came up before the Selection Committee at 12.55 and was out by 1 p.m. I was to be interviewed at 11 a.m. but there were 12 of us all in various stages of 'wind up' and my turn did not come for two hours, so I had ample time to i develop strage fright, especially as seven were turned down. The remainder —1 Irishman, 1 South African, 2 New Zealanders, and a chap from Notv ■wieh—2iad to report for medical exam. *at 2 p.m. I treated myself to a good , steak and felt much better on a full. i stomach. The first ordeal was to be bombarded with questions regarding1 my 1 past medical history and a detail of .■ mumps; ineasels, toothache, etc., then followed the' 'nose, and ear*man;who ■' probed and prodded and pushed; eilec-. trie lights ■up my nose and down my throat and in my ears. He; held my j head and, looking down my throat said, 'Cough!' so I coughed, and was rewarded with "Don't cough in my face '.'ifian; ' ' What else could tE dot The * next iaari was for optics and that meant an exhaustive procedivre with "■lenses 'and colours,1 and looking at a ■s pencil about :ah- irtch in ■front of my

eyes, and so on. Then followed ; the heart and lung manj he had me for an hour and a half, Eirst I had to strip and he sounded me back and front; &c rappediiny neck, knees; and elbows • with a mallet; he tickled" my feet and tummy; looked down my throat to see if I had fallen arches; followed holding contest (I managed to do 113 seconds), holding a column of mercury up for 80 seconds, and blowing into a gas meter—and " did I not feel thankful for my youthful deep-'breating exercises! Next came touch toes a dozen times and more stethiscoping, and here a hitch occurred and I was taken into another room where two doctors watched my heart-beats through what, appeared to be a "movie x-ray." They could watch the movements while £ stood between the machine and a screen in pitch darkness: It was nerveracking; there seemed to be a fatit somewhere, but at last it was over and I, was told to dress, but after ten minutes or so I had to strip and went into another room where they stethiscoped again and then t-he worst trial of all—the spinning chair. I sat in this and off I went ten times, then one grabbed my arm and tested blood pressure, and another grabbed my wrist and said, "Look at mcl" I managed to foscus my eyes on his in 9"seconds and then the ordeal ended without hearing any 1 result: In the meantime^ three of the others had been weeded at various stages until the KbrwicSt chap and I were left. He was told to come jback iii two months and I was told nothing/ so you can imagine I spent a very "worrying night. Htfwever, I called in tb^see theni next 'day and found I had passed—the only one out of the twelve! Thank goodness! only drawback is that I cannot get in before December 27th unless unexpected vacancies occur . '

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HN19301211.2.19

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 29, 11 December 1930, Page 7

Word count
Tapeke kupu
599

ADMITTED TO THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 29, 11 December 1930, Page 7

ADMITTED TO THE ROYAL AIR FORCE. Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 29, 11 December 1930, Page 7

Help

Log in or create a Papers Past website account

Use your Papers Past website account to correct newspaper text.

By creating and using this account you agree to our terms of use.

Log in with RealMe®

If you’ve used a RealMe login somewhere else, you can use it here too. If you don’t already have a username and password, just click Log in and you can choose to create one.


Log in again to continue your work

Your session has expired.

Log in again with RealMe®


Alert