Family circumstances dictated that Alan Reed leave school before his sixteenth birthday.
He was employed in a Chartered Accountants office until called up for National Service Training in the RAAF.
Becoming airborne for the first time in a Dakota DC3 changed his life forever and he applied for and was accepted by the RAAF as a Trainee Pilot.
Graduating as a Sergeant in 1954 he progressed through the ranks completing his career as an Air Vice Marshal leading RAAF Support Com.