Transcript
I'm from Adelaide originally and I went to Blackfriars Priory School, which was in the north part of Adelaide, but my family home was in Tea Tree Gully and I really had a great desire to join the Navy as soon as I possibly could.
And when I joined the Navy in 1978, there was a junior recruit scheme, so I joined when I was 15 going on to 16. And I don't think you're allowed to do that anymore with the UN Convention of child soldiers but that was the process at the time and went to school, basically, initially, and then from there, I just did all my recruit training and then off into the Navy proper after that.
So, I spent 21 years in the Navy, and, you know, enjoyed pretty much all of it. It was pretty good … My father was in the Army but I did have an uncle in the UK that was in the Navy, and I, you know, got to hear about him traveling around and, you know, it sounded pretty interesting.
I have three brothers and all of my brothers joined the Navy after I did. So, there was, you know, the four brothers, the four Apperley brothers were all in the Navy at the one time, in there at one stage. So, it was fairly interesting.
