West Irian Solution

   Back home there were already final preparations to accomplish the main operations plan, i.e. the invasion of the West Irian land by the Indonesian joint military task forces.  As history recorded, however, the New York Agreement in August 1962 as proposed by Mr. Ellsworth Bunker, an American diplomat, was finally agreed and signed by both delegates from Indonesia and the Netherlands.

   West Irian had then been taken under the United Nations control for one year thereafter, before it was transferred to Indonesia and finally regained its full status as an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia through a peaceful referendum by its people in 1969. The province was further called Irian Jaya, but again being renamed to Papua by the Indonesian government in 2002.

   It is also interesting to note that its present capital city, Jayapura, has been renamed several times from initially Hollandia (before the end of World War II), to Kotabaru (under the Dutch administration), then to Sukarnapura (given by President Sukarno) and later to Jayapura until now.

   The next big event that followed was the confrontation against Malaysia. Meanwhile, I had been given another assignment during that period, i.e. as an instructor at the 1st Training Wing and the Air Force Academy in Yogyakarta — a period which had initiated my further career mostly in the areas of education and training.

   Only a few ex-students of mine are now still in their highest ranking positions within the Air Force or Armed Forces organization, because most of them have also been retired.