Newsmaker: Rick Thame
This week's Rotorua Daily Post newsmaker is former soldier and Vietnam veteran Rick Thame. Mr Thame will be taking part in this weekend's Vietnam reunion in Rotorua and held the King's Empire Veterans AGM at the RSA.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
A baby boomer born in New Plymouth in 1946, I was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School and the Regular Force Cadet School in Waiouru. I served 22 years with the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment and retired to Rotorua, bought and operated the Pandora Family Fare store in Westbrook and then moved into financial services, retiring (again) in 2006.
I currently provide administrative services to organisations, families, and individuals.
Tell us a bit about your role at the Rotorua RSA and your work with the King's Empire Veterans.
I am the secretary/treasurer for both the National Executive of the King's Empire Veterans and the Rotorua Branch. It is an honour and a privilege to be around and to serve these elderly veterans of World War II, Korea, Malaya, Borneo, Pontian, Labis and Vietnam. The World War II veterans are all in their 90s and are as staunch as when they faced the enemy so long ago. Their dignity and honour shines today.
Tell us something about your time in the military and your experiences in Vietnam.
My military career began in Waiouru with the Army Schools as a trainee, then an instructor at the National Service Training Unit.
I moved on to the Battalion Depot in Burnham Camp, then South East Asia and Vietnam with the 1st Battalion. I served in the Vietnam War with Victor 5 Company of the 2nd RAR/NZ (Anzac) Battalion where we operated in the Phouc Tuy Province of the Republic of South Vietnam.
Then followed a series of postings to Waiouru, Wellington and back to Waiouru as an administrator and instructor. I travelled to far-flung places in the course of my career, giving me a broad perspective of humanity. I would do it all again.
What is the best part about what you do?
I am a "people person" and the army was really a just a big "people business" - managing people to achieve defined outcomes. So interacting with people, whether professionally or socially, is what keeps me active in the community and what gives me great satisfaction.
I believe in the inherent goodness of people and invariably I find that goodness.
Tell us three things about yourself most people wouldn't know.
I am a bread baker. I use a 6000-year-old Etruscan recipe and oven bake fresh bread most days. It doesn't require kneading and everyone loves it.
I'm a great-grandad five times over and that keeps me young - a Funeral Celebrant, and that keeps me compassionate.
My love of language once saved my life. A Vietnamese policeman pulled a gun on me during the war and was intent on using it when my school-boy French kicked in. He paused long enough for me to convince him I wasn't the bad guy. Close!