CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 July 1943, Page 3

CHIEF OF AIR STAFF

COMMODORE ISITT PROMOTED. FIRST NEW ZEALANDER TO HOLD POST. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The promotion of Air Commodore L. M. Isitt, C.8.E., to the temporary rank of Air Vice-Marshal and his appointment to the post of Chief of the Air Staff in the Air Department and Air Officer Commanding New Zealand Air Forces, in succession to Air Vice-Mar-shal R. V. Goddard, C. 8., C.8.E., who now reverts to the Royal Air Force on the expiry of his period of loan, was announced yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser. This was the first time, stated the Prime Minister, that the post of Chief of the Air Staff had been held by a New Zealand officer, and Air Vice-Marshal Isitt was to be congratulated on his thoroughly welldeserved appointment. The new Chief of the Air Staff, said Mr Fraser, had been associated with the Air Force' in New Zealand since its inception, and since 1940 had been overseas as New Zealand’s representative in Canada in connection with the Empire Air Training Scheme. He had served in Washington as Air Attache at the Legation, and before returning to New Zealand this year he had undertaken a tour of duty in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister also announced that Air Commodore G. T. Jarman, D.S.O. D.F.C., R.A.F., had now assumed the post of Deputy Chief of the Air Staff vacated by Air Vice-Marshal Isitt. Air Commodore Jarman was a New Zealander who had been a member of the Royal Air Force since December, 1930.