I wrote a piece a few days ago about the Queensland Police Commissioner's retirement.

Bill is a pilot who writes to me quite a bit.  I reckon a pretty useful measure of the man is the way that the fellow relates to and looks after his subordinates.   This note from Bill today about his experience of Bob Atkinson speaks volumes.

G’day Mr Smith,

                       Thank you for writing those kind words about my boss for the last seven years. We police air wing pilots will sorely miss him for he always had our best interests at heart, always walked away from his minders on arrival at the air wing facility to greet us and ask how things were going. He liked to use two of we old blokes to haul him around, the chief pilot and myself, made sure we were invited to any functions he attended if it were possible to include us, and when he found out that my ten year old grand daughter was a bit of a fan of his he insisted on inviting us out for lunch at his house.

During the floods a couple of years ago he ensured that the co-pilot and I were given the best Qantas catering for crew meals as we worked bloody hard (I did about ninety flying hours in eleven days, a month’s maximum allowable under the rules for a pilot, and also wore out two co-pilots!) They tried to give me a couple of medals but I told them that I couldn’t drink a bloody medal and didn’t accept awards or medals for doing my job so a few Sunday evenings ago the chief pilot (I suspect the commissioner sent him) turned up on the doorstep with an icy cold six pack of German wheat beer and an award!! That’s the mark of the man and my personal view of him. He did the same this year when the west was flooded out and we were at the fore once again.

The new bloke, Ian Stewart is also a good bloke and I hope that he gets the same support from the troops. Now that he is the commissioner I call him “Sir” as befits his rank along with everyone else, but he still has a beer with us on an overnight as Ian Stewart, and did just that Sunday night in Goondiwindi when we hauled a bunch of ministers and cops out for a country cabinet meeting. Off to haul HM guests up and down the coast to Cairnsand back so take care. Thanks once again for the kind words about a very decent man who will be missed by this old bloke.