Valston Hancock - Post-war Career

Post-war Career

Among a small coterie of wartime RAAF commanders considered suitable for future senior roles, Hancock retained his rank of group captain following the end of hostilities. As Director of Personnel Services during 1946, he was involved in restructuring the Air Force into a dramatically smaller peacetime service. He recalled this time as a "twilight period" when "no-one wanted to know about us" and many good people were let go due to the government's parsimonious retention policies. In 1947, Hancock was promoted to air commodore and appointed inaugural commandant of the newly formed RAAF College, Point Cook, the Air Force's equivalent of Duntroon and the Royal Australian Naval College. He also drafted the institution's charter. Departing in late 1949, he spent the following year in Britain, where he attended the Imperial Defence College. On his return to Australia in 1951, he was promoted to acting air vice marshal and made Deputy Chief of the Air Staff. He was raised to a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1953 New Years Honours. In October that year, Hancock took over from Air Vice Marshal Frank Bladin as Air Member for Personnel (AMP). As AMP, he occupied a seat on the Air Board, the service's controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers and which was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff. Completing his term in January 1955, Hancock was posted to Britain as Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in London. He spent much of the latter half of 1955 and early 1956 laid low by a stomach ailment that was initially diagnosed as amoebic dysentery but was later thought to be Malta fever or malaria.

In March 1957, Hancock was one of three candidates, along with Air Vice Marshals Frederick Scherger and Allan Walters, touted as possible successors to Air Marshal Sir John McCauley as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), the RAAF's senior position. Scherger gained selection, and Hancock was posted in June to Malaya as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) No. 224 Group RAF, responsible for all Commonwealth air forces in the region. Though fastidious in appearance and a strict teetotaller, he was known for his enthusiasm in meeting staff and as "an indefatigable participant in mess functions and games". He also made a point of getting out to units in the field, taking every opportunity to fly himself around his command. For his "distinguished service in Malaya", Hancock was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 9 December 1958. He returned to Australia in July 1959 to serve as AOC Operational Command (now Air Command). When Scherger's term as CAS was due to complete, Hancock and Walters were once more put forward to the Minister for Air as potential replacements. His "professional ability, operational experience and personal qualities" being deemed more appropriate for the role, Hancock was promoted to air marshal and took over as CAS in May 1961. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 1962 Queen's Birthday Honours, gazetted on 2 June.

As CAS, Hancock worked to enhance the RAAF's deterrent capability in the Pacific region, particularly in light of heightened tensions with Indonesia during its period of Konfrontasi with Malaysia. In June 1963, Hancock undertook a mission to Britain, France and the United States to consider potential replacements for the English Electric Canberra bomber as Australia's prime aerial strike platform. After investigating the US "TFX", North American A-5 Vigilante and McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II, the British BAC TSR-2, and the French Dassault Mirage IV, Hancock decided that the swing-wing TFX, forerunner of the General Dynamics F-111, would be the aircraft best suited for this role. However, as the TFX had not yet flown, he recommended purchase of the already operational Vigilante to counteract a perceived imminent threat from Indonesia. In the event, the Federal Government did not go ahead with an immediate replacement for the Canberra, and Hancock's original choice of the TFX was taken up as a long-term solution, leading to Australia's agreement in October to purchase the F-111C. The same month, as Konfrontasi continued to simmer, Hancock approved simplification to the rules of engagement for Australian Sabre fighters based at RAAF Butterworth to engage and destroy Indonesian aircraft violating Malay air space. The following month he urged using RAAF Canberras from Butterworth to make pre-emptive strikes against Indonesian air bases, in retaliation for incursions into West Malaysia, but Britain, which had initially requested Australia's involvement, held back on action.

Once the F-111 had been ordered, Hancock sought a suitable forward airfield from which they could operate. In this, he continued a policy initiated by his predecessor as CAS, Air Marshal Scherger, of developing a chain of so-called "bare bases" in Northern Australia. Hancock recommended redeveloping RAAF Base Learmonth in the northern part of Western Australia, due to its proximity to Indonesia. Flying out of this airfield, the F-111s could destroy "vital centres in Java"; just as importantly for deterrence purposes, Hancock contended, enhancing the base's capability would send a clear message to Indonesia's hierarchy. Though the project was delayed, in part due to thawing in relations between Australia and Indonesia, Learmonth's upgrade was completed in 1973, the same year that the F-111 finally entered RAAF service. The latter part of Hancock's tour as CAS coincided with the beginning of large-scale Australian involvement in the Vietnam War. By mid-1964, the Commonwealth had already sent a small team of military advisors, plus a detachment of newly acquired DHC-4 Caribou cargo planes, to the region at the request of the South Vietnamese government. Under Hancock, the Caribou had itself only been reluctantly ordered by the Air Force following intense pressure from the Army and the Federal government for an STOL transport. Concerned at the potential drain on the RAAF's resources, Hancock tried to resist calls for commitments to Vietnam. His negative views were in contrast to the hawkish attitudes of his deputy, Air Vice Marshal Colin Hannah, and Air Chief Marshal Scherger, now Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee and Australia's senior soldier. In April 1965, as part of American operations in Indochina, United States Air Force strike aircraft took up residence at Ubon Air Force Base, Thailand, which since 1962 had been home to No. 79 Squadron Sabres and run by the RAAF under SEATO arrangements. Hancock proposed that Australia continue to command the facility and provide local air defence, though this effectively made the Sabres a support unit in the war effort and therefore potential targets of North Vietnamese attack; none occurred, however.