Tony Short

Former Old Collegians' player Anthony Short was killed in Malaysia in April 1999. A number of articles were written describing what happened - the following is just one of them.

There was the following article in an Australian magazine in July 1999.

The Weekend Australian, 15-16 March 2003

KIM Short supports the war against Iraq even though she is the wife of an RAAF pilot killed in the line of duty. But the mother of three has a warning for families with loved ones in the Middle East.

Support one another, because if the unthinkable happens, the Defence Department will be little help.

"I believe quite strongly we ought to be involved in this war. My husband would have probably been there if he was alive," Dr Short said at her Brisbane home.

"But I fear for anybody who becomes a widow. The families will not get the support or the strength they need." Dr Short said she was abandoned by the department and the RAAF after her husband died in a training exercise over the South China Sea in 1999.

She is taking legal action after fighting for basic support services, such as counselling for her children and details of her husband's death.

Dr Short is suing the commonwealth for compensation for nervous shock, and her hearing starts on Tuesday in

"It's not about money, it's about them accepting some responsibility for what happened before and after the accident." Dr Short said her treatment had made her feel her husband's death counted for nothing including having to fight for legal representation at the inquiry into his death.

Squadron Leaders Anthony Short, 31, and Stephen Hobbs, 33, were performing a mock attack with the navy at night. They had no time to eject from their F111, and crashed into a a Malaysian island mountain. An inquiry found planning for the exercise was poor and Pre-flight briefings inadequate, but no one was to blame. After Squadron Leader Hobbs's military funeral, his wife was not allowed to keep the flag on his coffin because it was needed for Squadron Leader Short's funeral the next day, Dr Short said.

"Where is the honour? They have made me feel his sacrifice was worth nothing," said Dr Short, a general practitioner. "How much does a flag cost?"

She also fought for her husband's logbook - important to all pilots - which was eventually handed to her in a plastic shopping bag. She only recently discovered what free health-care her children, aged 7, 9 and 13, were entitled to.

The department declined to comment on Dr Short's case, but said the Defence Community Organisation arranged social, health, education and other services for defence personnel and their families.

Dr Short telephoned other widows, including Kylie Russell, whose husband, SAS sergeant Andrew, was killed in Afghanistan 12 months ago, for support. But a formal network was needed to help them cope, she said.

One such widow is Kay Ellis. Mrs Ellis wrote a manual for the RAAF last year on its responsibilities to families, which is to be implemented this year. Her husband, Flight Lieutenant Timothy Ellis, and four others died in a training accident in a Boeing 707 in 1991.