Sitting in his carefully curated home, surrounded by military emblems and aviation books, Jim Jennings smiles.
His eyes light up as he describes his countless adventures over his 60-year career as a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
He is the only person to ever fire rounds at a foreign ship in New Zealand waters, he’s travelled the world for his country, and he’d do it all again in a heartbeat.
The 79-year-old retired from the force last week, but his passion for the skies will never waver.
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Raised on a farm in Canterbury, Jennings knew he wanted a different life.
Mechanically minded, he used to watch as the planes would take off from Christchurch Airport in Harewood.
He was tempted by commercial flying, but why drive a bus when you can ride in a sports car.
Nothing made his blood boil quite like the rush of speeding through the sky in a jet plane, he said.
He joined the service in 1961 as an aircraft mechanic, but simply working on the fixed-wings wasn’t enough.
“If you enjoy something, and you’ve put your heart and soul into it, you can get it.”
The itch to take the controls took hold of him, and six years later he took to the skies.
“You suddenly realise everything is up to you. There’s a bit of pressure on but once you get that milestone you're away.
“It’s one of the best decisions I ever made.”
He spent his time piloting jets like the Harvard Mk.II, the DH104 Devon, and the de Havilland Vampire, but it was the McDonnell Douglas A4-K Skyhawk that stole his heart.
The Kin Nan, a Taiwanese squid boat, was lurking in New Zealand waters in 1976, which gave Jennings the story of a lifetime.
“New Zealand was surrounded by fishing boats,” he said. “Just about every Asian country, plus the Russians, were pillaging our fisheries around the countryside.
“There was very little policing going on because the Navy only had small patrol crafts that were designed for inshore work, not out on the high seas.”
Navy ships were battling to bring Kin Nan in and away from the 12-mile invisible line that separated legal and illegal fishing. But, with limited firepower, they were helpless to stop them, Jennings said.
“Two of these [Navy] patrol crafts had been chasing this Taiwanese fleet, which had been cruising the Taranaki coast, and had finally caught one of these boats in the 12 miles.
“The boat turned due west and sailed and the Navy were in hot pursuit. They fired a few shots off the bow and the Taiwanese thing did not stop.”
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