Colin Jansen

Colin attended Wellington's Tawa College and Aucklands University of Technology but, on finishing school, he obtained a cadetship with the Ministry of Defence. He was posted in 1985 in a logistics role as a purchaser with an RNZAF Cell of Supply Directorate, Freyberg Building Defence Headquarters.

Over the years he has been responsible for the raising of requisitions, delegation of finance, purchase and supply of components from both civilian and military vendors for many of the RNZAF aircraft including A4K Skyhawk, UH1D Iroquois, C130 Hercules, and even the wartime Harvards to name just a few.

Not long after placement within Supply Directorate in 1985, Colin enlisted in Wellington's 'Guns of the Capital' 22(D) Battery RNZA serving as a Gunline Bombardier on the L5 Pack.

He was delighted to be selected and deployed to the Solomon Islands with three other RNZA pers on attachment to Battalion, as it afforded a chance to experience first hand where his Grandfather had served during WW2.

By the late 1990s Colin was serving with Auckland's 11(A) Battery on the L119 Light Guns. He is still working in a logistics role today but actively looking for new and more interesting roles within NZDF.

Outside work he continues a long held passion for collecting antique furniture, chattels and books, and playing electric guitar. However Colin is very active in the preservation of military history as a member of the New Zealand Wing of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF). This is a military preservation group which aims to create a CAF Military Museum and restore WW2 to Vietnam era military aircraft, vehicles, weapons and equipment to working order. Restoration enables these items to be flown, driven or operated at displays, to both commemorate those men and women who used them in war and peace, and also to educate the public.

Colin has a very large private collection of Kiwi and American equipment from WW2 to the 90s including uniforms, jeeps, trucks and trailers, weapons and field equipment which he intends to display in the CAF Museum. Presently Colin has an incomplete L5 Howitzer which the CAF is working to restore.