Commanding Officer 4th Field Regiment RAA Dec 1983-1985

Lieutenant Colonel Tim Ford was appointed as the Commanding Officer of the Fourth Field Regiment, RAA in December 1983. During his tenure the Regiment was a regular unit based in Lavarack Barracks, Townsville as the direct support regiment to the Third Brigade (then the ADF Ready Deployment Force) of the Fist Australian Division. 

Tim was born in Ballarat, Victoria in August 1945 the younger son of another Gunner, then Captain Bill Ford who later became the Chief Instructor of the School of Artillery from 1956-1960.  Tim, along with five other Australian and New Zealand classmates, graduated as a Lieutenant into artillery from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in December 1966. After completing a Young Officers’ Course at North Head, he spent most of the next two years completing a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at Sydney University before his first posting to 19 Composite Regiment at Holsworthy in November 1968. There he completed postings and undertook courses as Radar Section Commander 131 Divisional Location Battery, GPO of 103 Medium Battery and a Trials Battery, and as Task Force Artillery Intelligence Officer in 131 Div Loc Bty before being posted to South Vietnam in August 1969 as the Officer Commanding the 131 Divisional Locating Battery Detachment SVN. During this deployment he was also a duty officer in the FSCC of 4th Field Regiment and then 12th Field Regiment.

Subsequent Gunner appointments before taking up command of 4th Field Regiment in 1983 included SO3 Equipment in DRA Army Headquarters (1971-72), attendance at the 11th Long Gunnery Staff Course Officers at the UK Royal School of Artillery Larkhill followed by an attachment to the Royal Artillery Gunnery Training Establishment at Hohne in Germany (1973-74), and Second in Command Ist Field Regiment RAA in Wacol in 1978-79.

During his appointment as CO, 4th Field Regiment comprised a Headquarters Battery and two field batteries (107 Fd Bty and 108 Fd Bty) equipped with the 105mm L5 Howitzers. The Regiment trained hard and was maintained at a high state of technical and administrative readiness as part of the ADF‘s Ready Deployment Force.  Most deployment exercises at High Range Training Area and Shoalwater bay involved both FW and RW air moves.  On 4th May 1985 the Regiment celebrated the 25th Birthday of the Regiment with a well-attended regimental mounted parade.  

Tim Ford subsequently served the Regiment as Director Artillery in 1988-89 and as the RAA Representative Colonel Commandant from 2005-12.