History

The original flying padre

At the outbreak of the Second World War, Salvation Army officer Captain Victor Pedersen temporarily left The Salvation Army church ministry (known as corps) to join the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He became a qualified pilot and a Red Shield Defence Service (Sallyman) representative with the RAAF Operational Base Unit, based in Truscott, Western Australia.

While serving as an unofficial chaplain in an area where distances are so vast and roads almost non-existent, Vic realised the only means by which he could effectively bring a spiritual ministry to the people in the north was by aeroplane.

While on leave in 1945 he was involved in the purchase for The Salvation Army of an ex-RAAF Tiger Moth, registration VH-ASA, which was flown from Melbourne to Darwin, then on to Truscott, where it was used to make pastoral visits to staff at radar stations in the region.

This proved to be the link between The Salvation Army’s war work and post-war activity in the north. With the end of World War II, Vic’s work changed from providing Red Shield service for servicemen in isolated areas, to inaugurating a new kind of Salvation Army work among outback cattle stations and settlements.