Warrant Officer Rudy Mech, the longest-serving enlisted aircrew member in the Royal Australian Air Force, retired on 18 February 2010 after a forty-two year career with more than 15,000 flight hours—roughly 625 days—most of which came as a C-130 loadmaster. During his career, he served on C-130E, H, and J models, loading everything from emus to a submarine periscope. His last flight came on a C-130J tactical exercise a week before he retired. Mech joined the RAAF in 1968 at age seventeen. He served as a door gunner on UH-1 helicopters during the Vietnam War and flew with then-Pilot Officer Angus Houston, who is now Air Chief Marshal Houston, chief of the Australian Defence Force.
