Sad to hear about big Donnie. He was ex-RAN FAA I believe.
I think 'Bill' would have been Bill Richardson. He told the story about getting into a RAAF Sabre squadron that had the last of the P51 Mustangs online until the day before he was posted in - so he missed out on the P51 by one day. Very good instructor and I think he got up to Air Commodore in the RAAF.