Fresh out of John McGlashan College, the 18-year-old was keen to get away to fighter pilot training with the Royal New Zealand Air Force as soon as possible.
Having passed the pre-entry examination, he telephoned the local officer and was told to meet the truck bound for Taieri Airfield at the Crown Hotel in Rattray St, in Dunedin.
He did so, jumping into the back without question.
When the truck rolled to a halt, he asked where he was and when the reply was Portobello, he was "taken aback".
When he arrived at Taiaroa Head a short time later, he told the orderly who greeted him of his conundrum.
"And he said, 'Well, now you are here, and we need fellows like you, so you're staying'."
There followed an 11-month posting as lance-corporal with the Coastal Artillery Unit's 82nd Battery at Taiaroa Head.
He spent two months working on the disappearing gun and nine months installing and maintaining the three searchlights based within the fortification during World War 2.
It was a "pleasant existence" at Taiaroa, where about 150 troops lived in barracks at Pilots beach, the now 87-year-old Roseneath resident said.
There had been a large YMCA, where singers performed and films were shown, and "quite a community" when the lighthouse settlement and troops with the National Military Service, whose job it was to provide ground defence to the fortification, were considered.
From Taiaroa he applied for and got into dental school for about two months, before he was called up for pilot training in 1943.
He was posted to Montrose, in Scotland, flying Bristol Beauforts with the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command, dropping mines in the North Sea.
In retrospect, ending up at Taiaroa Head for those 11 months might have saved his life, he said.
"If I'd gone direct [to pilot training] I would have arrived in the United Kingdom at the height of the battle of Europe and there Bomber Command lost [55,000] aircrew."
He can recall being on leave in London on VE Day, where the din from the chiming church bells, which had been silenced during the war, was "incredible".
"All the searchlights were focused on St Paul's and it just shone. And in the background were the bells. It was an amazing sight."
The veteran said he had seen many Anzac Day services and felt there was an obligation to pay respects to the fallen.
It pleased him to see the enthusiasm with which younger people had embraced the day.
This year, he would attend and speak at a service being held at Taiaroa Head.
It was fitting there be a service there, because it was one of the few Otago places people were actually based in action during the war.
"There was a lot of local history made there."
