On the morning of 18 November 1963, three exercise umpires, Lieutenant John Cope, Lieutenant John ‘Ben’ Hall and Lieutenant Jack Smith, were killed when an Army Cessna 180 crashed during a low level aerial reconnaissance to support Exercise Sky High being conducted by 1st task Force in the Wollemi National Park, about 100km south west of Newcastle.
The events of this day were recalled over half a century later on 6 August 2014 with the dedication of a memorial plaque at the Anzac Chapel of St Paul at Duntroon. Following this, three wreaths were laid during the Last Post Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial. This was a joint effort by the OCS Class of June 1960 and the RMC Class of 1960. John Cope and Jack Smith were members of the OCS class and John Hall of the RMC class. Approximately 55 people attended including relatives of the victims of the crash, serving army officers and classmates from both OCS and RMC. Amongst the serving officers were the Heads of Corps of Signals and Infantry and representatives of the Commandant RMC-A and the Head of Corps of Aviation Corps.
Photo: Grace Costa, Defence Publishing- Audio Visual.