00:00It's hard to describe John in a short, it's something simple.
00:05He was a very complex man, but innovative, I think.
00:10He's the one who brought pararescue to Australia.
00:13Without John it wouldn't have been there.
00:15We used to call him Freddo.
00:17I mean, it was obvious, his name was Frederick, so Freddo was the natural name.
00:22Now we didn't call him that to his face, of course.
00:24We used to call him John, but Freddo was what he was referred to behind his back.
00:28It was an affectionate thing, it was nothing more than that.
00:32John to me was an enigma. He was an exciting man to work for.
00:36He had a lot of big dreams and visions and he's one of those few people
00:39that actually managed to convert a dream and a vision into a reality.
00:44John was a driven man, you know.
00:46He was very influential, very enigmatic, quite a powerful person.
00:53I've never known anyone, to this day actually, that when he walks into a room,
00:58he'll command the room, you know.
01:00People will be drawn to him and he'll, he was able to just get anyone on side
01:05and get his story across to anybody. It was quite, quite remarkable.
01:08Everyone there loved him. The cooks, the ladies who cooked our meals,
01:13they'd be off on Christmas because John would be there cooking Christmas lunch for us.
01:17He, yeah, he was an amazing person that I haven't met anyone like.
01:23Well, John Frederick, in my view, was a very powerful, passionate person.
01:30He was an autocrat in that everything had to be done his way.
01:35He controlled the organisation, the National Safety Council, in a very strong way,
01:40a positive way and, in my opinion, most people liked him.
01:45I thought John was highly intelligent, very difficult to work for,
01:52but one of the things I admired about him was he wouldn't ask anyone to do anything
01:58that he wasn't prepared to do himself.
02:00He'd actually done an AFF parachute course, which is advanced freefall
02:05and there was no real requirement for him to do that,
02:08but it was just flying the flag and showing the pararescue guys
02:12that he was prepared to be where they were.
02:15I was quite impressed with that, actually.
02:16John was manipulative. He would have you, um, he would sell ice to Eskimos
02:21and the Eskimos would come back for more.
02:23He, uh, I mentioned to you the other day, he had, he could, he would hold court.
02:28You would see John in Wessail Base.
02:31He'd be standing there talking to the cleaners, the operations people,
02:35and they'd all form a horseshoe around and John would be,
02:38perhaps pontificating to some point, but he would hold their attention.
02:41Some that were generally interested and want to listen.
02:43Others thought, John's talking, I better sit here and listen.
02:46But if John suggested we were going to do something, it generally happened.
02:50In my view, Fredo was a very optimistic type of person.
02:54Nothing was too much trouble for him.
02:57And when you look at what he did achieve from very humble beginnings, it was huge.
03:04So, I always saw him as being extremely optimistic and I think the optimism was,
03:10was justifiable because he always managed to achieve as a result of it.
03:15What John Frederick brings up for me, um, is a picture of an exceptionally talented man
03:19who was able to implement a dream and a vision in a way that very few people
03:23I've been, I've worked for or been a part of, uh, have been able to do.
03:27I mean, right at the end, at the final demise of the Safety Council,
03:31maybe it could be argued that his optimism was not justified,
03:35but I think at the time it probably was.
03:37It's one thing to look back in hindsight.
03:40It's another thing to be actually there at the coalface at the time.
03:44John had a big ego, there's no doubt, but then the people who work for John,
03:48the commanders of an aircraft, have a big ego.
03:50The PJs who jump out of the aeroplane into the ocean, have a big ego.
03:55But an ego is not a dirty word, to quote the song.
03:58Ego is essential, providing it doesn't exceed your ability.
04:02If you have a large ego, large confidence in yourself,
04:05you will achieve great things where others won't.
04:08And so John had an ego.
04:09He wanted to have the best rescue organisation in the world.
04:13He, as his words, he wanted a Rolls Royce service.
04:16And he got it, he produced it.
04:18I believe John Frederick was a visionary.
04:20He was the sort of person who saw a need and set his goals appropriately.
04:27He was able to take advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves
04:33and the Ash Wednesday fires and the aftermath of that
04:37was certainly the most significant one.
04:40But he also set up arrangements with other countries
04:43to do similar work over there in conjunction with their equivalent organisations,
04:49for want of a better word.
04:50In Canada, he worked with a company called Conair.
04:53And we were, in the latter stages, using some of their aircraft in our summer.
04:59And in our winter, our aircraft would go back over to Canada.
05:02So what it really meant was the fleet was doubled.
05:04So we had Canadian aircraft as well as ours here during our summer.
05:09And then over in Canada, they'd have our aircraft as well as theirs during their summer.
05:13So it worked very well.
05:14And he also did a similar arrangement with Spain and Portugal.
05:17The National Safety Council provided a fantastic opportunity when it was at its highest.
05:25It did employ a lot of local people.
05:28And I often think for that reason, they had this fondness of John Frederick.
05:37Notwithstanding that the whole operation was a sham.
05:43But it wasn't in their head.
05:45I mean, it's like they were building something.
05:48Absolutely.
05:49If you're part of an organisation and you see the organisation growing
05:54and you're contributing to it, you will feel pretty good about it, I suspect.
05:59And that's how they felt about John Frederick.
06:02He was, we mustn't forget that he was given the Order of Australia
06:06for his services to search and rescue.
06:10John was very focused.
06:12He had some goals.
06:13He had some unreal goals.
06:15At the end of the day, he had to finance those goals.
06:20And that was his role in arranging the financial side of it,
06:24along with other senior board members, to maintain the organisation.
06:30He was not a bad man.
06:32He was a very good man.
06:33And his ability to look forward and forward focus and expand ideas, I thought was excellent.
06:45The John I know and the John that I read about seemed to be two different people.
06:50And certainly the John that I knew was an amiable, outgoing man who was very intelligent.
07:00He obviously didn't have any abnormal diagnosis and I felt that he was very friendly.
07:06The issue that I felt controlled the whole organisation was this man's drive to set up that organisation
07:19and to expand it for the purposes of assisting the military or paramilitary organisations.
07:27And that is not the motive of a confidence trickster.
07:30And, God forbid, if.
07:34My own business.
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