More detail on this person: Graham Roland Rohrsheim 06 December 1931- 03 September 2018 The Fleet Air Arm Association regrets to advise of the death of LCDR Graham 'Zork' Rohrsheim DSC RAN (Ret'd), after a long battle with dementia. Born in Port Pirie (SA) on 6 December 1931, Graham 'Zork' Rohrsheim joined the Fleet Air Arm as a young man and qualified as a pilot on Fireflies and Sea Furies, before moving on to the jets (Vampire and Sea Venoms). The decision to axe the Fleet Air Arm's fixed wing aircraft in 1959 (a policy later reversed) saw him elect to fly helicopters. In those early days the Navy's rotary-wing aircraft were somewhat more unreliable than fixed-wing and he walked/swam away from no less than eight engine failures over successive years, including one where he autorotated a Wessex onto the deck of HMAS Melbourne in Wellington Bay - a stunning piece of airmanship. Zork was probably best remembered for his command of the second Flight of the RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam (RAN HFV), a position in which he served with distinction from September 1968 t0 October 1969. After leaving the RAN in 1983 he flew for various civilian operators, mostly for TV filming and in the oil industry. Zork was one of the great personalities of the Fleet Air Arm, and the affliction from which he suffered eventually took his life on Monday 3rd September 2018. The day before he had been given his RAN Helicopter Flight Vietnam Unit Citation for Gallantry (UCG) medallion by his daughters, who had received it on his behalf. We like to think that he knew exactly what it was, and it was a source of great pride and satisfaction to him on his final journey.
This information was last updated 09/04/2018
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Date posted on this site: 03/10/2024
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