Ian Gibson served under the name of Ian Leslie Henderer as a National Serviceman, completing his Recruit Training at 2 Recruit Training Battalion as well as his Infantry Training at 3 Training Battalion.

He was then posted to 1 Division Headquarters Defence Company as a rifleman on the 23^rd September, 1968.His record there was not very good having been charged with four offences. He was injured on 10 May 1969 and posted to the Australian Special Air Service Regiment on 14 January 1970 as a rifleman against an established position of a 109 driver. He extended his service in May 1970 by one year whilst posted at the SAS Regiment and discharged on 1 May 1971.

 

 

IYou will notice that on his service record he was not qualified as an SAS soldier. In August 2002 Ian Henderer (Gibson) attended the office of Don Randall JP MP, Federal Member for Canning in Western Australia and was presented his National Service medal while wearing a SAS beret.

His photo can be seen in the Randall Report Issue 3 August 2002 at the following web site

www.donrandallmp.com/pdf/RReportAug02.pdf  

If you have trouble with this link, type in Ian Henderer in Google search and it is the first file on the page.

It is not know when he changed his name to Ian Gibson, but after some time he was tracked down and contacted and asked why he was wearing the SAS beret when he was not qualified to do so.

Gibson alleges that the Commanding Officer at the time LT Colonel XX XXXXXX ordered a number of non qualified soldiers posted to Transport to wear the SAS beret.

 As that person is now deceased, we could not get confirmation of that order.

Any Commanding Officer of a Special Force Unit would cause distrust and lack of respect for himself from the men who had to go through a gruelling Selection Course for the right to wear the SAS beret. It would be a stab in the back of those qualified soldiers and they would most likely be asking themselves, was it worth it.

When asked why he was wearing it in 2002 when he knew he was not qualified to wear it, his reply was. It was the last unit I was posted to.

Even if such order was given, any soldier not qualified to wear the beret if they had any integrity should have refused to do so in respect of those that had to undergo the Selection Course.

To wear the beret in 2002 knowing he never qualified to wear the beret shows further disrespect to the men who did qualify and for what the beret stands for. Being posted to the SAS and not qualifying does not give the person the right to wear the beret at any time. Being the last unit posted to is a poor excuse

For this Gibson will remain on our web site forever more.