2 April 2025
Communication has been central to new Federation Star recipient Warrant Officer Jeff Addinsall’s 47-year career.
As one of the ground crew for Central Flying School’s Air Force Balloon Flight team, Warrant Officer Addinsall makes the most of his Reserve role to engage adults and children in the science of unpowered flight, and the Air Force experience.
“Wherever we go in the community, we always aim to make the balloon experience fun, as well as expose people to Air Force and put it in their mind,” he said.
Joining Air Force was top of Warrant Officer Addinsall’s mind back in 1978, when he was fresh out of school. Coming from a small farming community in Hamilton, Victoria, he was keen to see more of the world.
Three hours down the road at RAAF Base Laverton, he began training as a radio technician, then as a signals operator, but that path wasn’t to be.
Warrant Officer Addinsall ended up at RAAF Base Darwin as a 'general hand', where the base intelligence officer soon took an interest in his Morse code skills, clearance level and initiative.
After training as a communications operator his duties included relaying weather data transmissions from across the Top End to the Bureau of Meteorology, and building his skills in “other facets of the trade”, including high-frequency radio, teletype, paper tape, message switching and communications security.
In the late 1980s, technology began its rapid transformation from analogue to digital.
“We changed from mainframe systems with punch card readers, to computers with massive 10 megabyte disks that would take up entire rooms, and then minicomputers,” Warrant Officer Addinsall said.
“Then satellite dishes started appearing, and isolated computer networks at different bases joined up to become Australia-wide Defence networks.”
'When I started my career it was still the Cold War; threats were real, but less immediate. The threat environment today is much more sophisticated and instantaneous.'
While based at RAAF Base Glenbrook, Warrant Officer Addinsall trained in the new Defence Integrated Secure Communications Network, now the Defence Protected Network, and his focus on communications security expanded.
“When I started my career it was still the Cold War; threats were real, but less immediate. The threat environment today is much more sophisticated and instantaneous,” he said.
In 2010, five years after transitioning to the Reserves, Warrant Officer Addinsall deployed to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for Operation Slipper.
“I was part of the Gulf States Communications Control Group and our responsibility was all communications outside of Afghanistan,” he said.
“I ran a project to upgrade the radio network at the base and I looked after information security between Kuwait and Dubai.”
Warrant Officer Addinsall also received a commendation for services to staff welfare during the nine-month stint.
He said the UAE deployment, a four-year posting as communications manager at RMAF Base Butterworth, and attending the Multinational Communication Interoperability Program while posted to Headquarters Joint Operations Command, were among the highlights of his career.
“These deployments and activities opened my eyes to the bigger picture of what we do. It’s all about regional engagement and collaboration and getting to know our partners and allies better,” Warrant Officer Addinsall said.
“It has been a pleasure and a great honour to represent Air Force and the country.”
WOFF Addinsall was presented with his Federation Star by Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Stephen Chappell during the Canberra Balloon Spectacular on March 15.
