The Air Force’s ‘God Squads’

Press, 10 June 1977, Page 1

The Air Force’s ‘God Squads’

Police inquiries at the Royal New Zealand Air Force Woodbourne base and at Blenheim yeslerdav point to a link between the Air Force and the Church of the Full Gospel—the "God Squad*’ whose Waipara headquarters have been the sub ject of police raids which uncovered a large cache of arms.

So far six of the sect’s members have appeared in court on charges under the Arms Act. Three of them are R.N.Z.A.F. servicemen. Apart from the police raids on the Waipara farmlet. inquiries have centred on R.N.Z.A.F. bases at Wiggram. Whenuapai, Ohakea, Te Rapa, and Woodbourne. “God Squad” members first appeared in the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1971 at Wigram and Whenuapai. Since then they have spread to every Air Force base in New Zealand.

Their fellow servicemen generally have not regarded them as sinister —merely as “religious crackpots.” Their reaction to the discovery of big caches of arms and

ammunition, and to the fortress-like character of the group’s Waipara headquarters, has been one of shock.

The extent of the group’s involvement with the Air Force is being closely studied.- There has been a careful check of equipment at the Wigram base to see if any of the group’s arms and radio gear came from the base. The short answer seems to be that it has not, although the radio parts taken by the police do include items of military origin. However, they are outdated parts that could as easily have come from an Amiy-surplus or discount radio-parts store as from an operational air base. It does not seem that

any radio-transmitting equipment was found at Waipara, in spite of the aerials rigged from some of the buildings.

At Wigram. “God Squad” membership (the title was, not surprisingly, coined in the Air Force) seems to have been restricted to the communications and electronics sections —a situation that apparently exists ar other bases. Nobody seems able to explain the attraction of the service, or vice versa. It may be that because the 1970-1 “originals” were in the Whenuapai communications branch, the connection with this branch has been maintained and expanded as more “converts” have been gained. In the early stages,

active members of the group sought converts among their fellow servicemen but this was quickly discouraged by the Air Force authorities in line with the general policy of the service on such proselytizing.

Since then, members of the sect in the Air Force have kept fairly much to themselves.

Their workmates are not particularly clear about the sect’s beliefs, save that the “Squad” members are opposed to smoking and drinking and tend to sit by themselves at tea breaks, reading their Bibles. There is a suggestion that some of the Wigram members of the sect may have moved to this base from northern ones, partly to be near the sect head-

quarters at Waipara. Be that as it may, the stopping last week of two Air Force sect members in a van, allegedly carrying arms and explosives through the Christchurch city area, came as a complete surprise to air-base officers. The number of sect members actually in the R.N.Z.A.F. is plainly not high — proportionately probably little higher than what one would expect from national membership of the sect. Had it not been for the discovery of the big arms and ammunition caches, and the unusual nature of the Waipara property, it would have continued to go unremarked.