MAKHADO (LOUIS TRICHARDT) – Air Force Base Makhado came under new command on January 1, when Brig Gen Des Barker took over command from Brig Gen Willie Hartogh.

His wife, Bennie, accompanies Brig Gen Barker. His previous two assignments were Officer Commanding Test Flight and Development Centre and then lately, Air Attaché to the South African High Commission in London.

Gen Barker has a rich military background and originates from Pretoria. He is third generation Air Force, his grandfather being the twentieth member of the SAAF. He qualified as a SAAF pilot in 1969 and is essentially a 'jet' pilot having flown all the jet types in SAAF service. He is an A1 Category flying instructor and in 1975 flew as a member of the SAAF's Silver Falcons aerobatic team while as an operational pilot, completed a total of eighty-two operational sorties, being awarded the Military Merit Medal.

Brig Des graduated as a fixed wing experimental test pilot in 1985 and was the production test pilot on the Cheetah D and the project test pilot on the Cheetah C. Besides a two-year tour as a test pilot overseas; he also spent some time at the Russian Air Force's Flight Test Centre flying the MiG-29. He has also conducted flight tests on jets in Italy and the Czech Republic. Gen Barker's assignment to AFB Makhado is to oversee the integration of the SAAF's Lead-In-Fighter Trainer Hawk Mk120 and the SAAB Gripen into SAAF inventory.

He has flown some forty-five different aircraft types and variants of military aircraft and has a total of approximately 6,500 flying hours. In 1990, he was awarded the Southern Cross Medal for his contribution to flight-testing in the SAAF. Besides the publication of more than fifty papers internationally, he has also published a flight safety book on demonstration flying in December 2003 entitled "Zero Error Margin – Display Flying Analysed".

His wife Bennie originates from the wine region of the Hex River Valley where she spent her childhood and a school career on a fruit/wine farm in the Montagu district from where she matriculated in 1969. Her studies and career in education culminated in her obtaining a Masters degree in Education from the University of London. She has been a devoted and supportive "pack-up-and-follow" Air Force wife and doting mother to their two sons, Kevin (26) and Dean (23) - one a commercial pilot and one a BSc Computer Science graduate.