Keough, Tom Keough
Licenced to ..?

The Beginning

I was born 11 November in glorious Sydney at the Camperdown Children’s Hospital.   My parents were your typical parents of the time; we lived in a modest two bedroom home in the suburb of Petersham. It was an old run down duplex in the inner western suburbs of Sydney that my Dad worked three jobs to pay for.

My older brother was six years older than me when he joined the Navy at 15 years old. I loved to listen to his stories of gallivanting around the world when he came home on leave.  These stories included his two tours of duty on the HMAS Sydney to the Vietnam War.

I decided at a young age that I was going to do the same as my brother so when I was 15 I left school to join the navy.  I had big visions of travelling the world, having a great time while making money.  I was one of 120 out of over 3000 applications who got an apprenticeship, so I joined as a shipwright apprentice, where I spent two years in a hell-hole called HMAS Nirimba out the back of Quakers Hill .. way way west of Sydney.  It was worse than school.

Tags: HMAS Nirimba, RAN, Shipwright