ADMITTED TO THE ROYAL AIR FORCE.

Hutt News, Volume 3, Issue 29, 11 December 1930, Page 7

ADMITTED TO THE ROYAL AIR FORCE.

jOOOSrCKRATUI/ATIQISrS TO HUTT BOY

The following interesting account of the severe test candidates for the R.AIF aTe subjected to has been received from Mr. Geoff Jarman, a former prominent memfber of the Hutt Rugby1 team. "The great day has come and gone, and I am. accepted for entry in the J&.A.F—so passes a period of intense anxiety for yours truly. "Yesterday I came up before the Selection Committee at 12.55 and was out by 1 p.m. I was to be interviewed at 11 a.m. but there were 12 of us all in various stages of 'wind up' and my turn did not come for two hours, so I had ample time to i develop strage fright, especially as seven were turned down. The remainder —1 Irishman, 1 South African, 2 New Zealanders, and a chap from Notv ■wieh—2iad to report for medical exam. *at 2 p.m. I treated myself to a good , steak and felt much better on a full. i stomach. The first ordeal was to be bombarded with questions regarding1 my 1 past medical history and a detail of .■ mumps; ineasels, toothache, etc., then followed the' 'nose, and ear*man;who ■' probed and prodded and pushed; eilec-. trie lights ■up my nose and down my throat and in my ears. He; held my j head and, looking down my throat said, 'Cough!' so I coughed, and was rewarded with "Don't cough in my face '.'ifian; ' ' What else could tE dot The * next iaari was for optics and that meant an exhaustive procedivre with "■lenses 'and colours,1 and looking at a ■s pencil about :ah- irtch in ■front of my

eyes, and so on. Then followed ; the heart and lung manj he had me for an hour and a half, Eirst I had to strip and he sounded me back and front; &c rappediiny neck, knees; and elbows • with a mallet; he tickled" my feet and tummy; looked down my throat to see if I had fallen arches; followed holding contest (I managed to do 113 seconds), holding a column of mercury up for 80 seconds, and blowing into a gas meter—and " did I not feel thankful for my youthful deep-'breating exercises! Next came touch toes a dozen times and more stethiscoping, and here a hitch occurred and I was taken into another room where two doctors watched my heart-beats through what, appeared to be a "movie x-ray." They could watch the movements while £ stood between the machine and a screen in pitch darkness: It was nerveracking; there seemed to be a fatit somewhere, but at last it was over and I, was told to dress, but after ten minutes or so I had to strip and went into another room where they stethiscoped again and then t-he worst trial of all—the spinning chair. I sat in this and off I went ten times, then one grabbed my arm and tested blood pressure, and another grabbed my wrist and said, "Look at mcl" I managed to foscus my eyes on his in 9"seconds and then the ordeal ended without hearing any 1 result: In the meantime^ three of the others had been weeded at various stages until the KbrwicSt chap and I were left. He was told to come jback iii two months and I was told nothing/ so you can imagine I spent a very "worrying night. Htfwever, I called in tb^see theni next 'day and found I had passed—the only one out of the twelve! Thank goodness! only drawback is that I cannot get in before December 27th unless unexpected vacancies occur . '