Colonel:  South African Air Force
Gauteng

Colonel William Charles Knight Monk de Pinho, was born in Umtali Rhodesia (as it was called at the time) and moved to the RSA with his parents in 1969. He matriculated as Head of School at Saint Martins School in Johannesburg, before studying at Wits University.

He started his career in the Air Force in 1980 at the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC). He completed his Officers Forming Course at the end of 1982 and was promoted to Lieutenant in January 1984. He was subsequently transferred to 2 Squadron, at AFB Hoedspruit as the Intelligence and Reconnaissance Officer. He also served at Ysterplaat as the Base Intelligence Officer and the Maritime Reconnaissance Officer. He was then transferred to Pretoria and served in various positions at CDI.

At the end of 1994 he resigned for family reasons and took up a position as a Regional Manager for a Service Company in Empangeni in Kwazulu Natal. Due to a large loss of business for the company, he was retrenched along with 800 other personnel in 1997.

He came back into the Air Force in August 1997 and in 1998 he was appointed within Foreign Relations. In 1999 he successfully completed the Senior Command and Staff Course and remained behind as a Directing Staff Member. He was subsequently appointed at Chief Joint Training as one of the Project Officers for Project PROFUSION, which was to develop and write the new curriculum for the Joint Senior Command and Staff Programme.

In January 2002 he was promoted to Colonel and appointed as the Officer Commanding of JARIC, a position he held until the end of 2004. He was then placed on the “Additional to Structure” list. Since March 2005 he has assisted in numerous positions including SAEM implementation, Air Show Director for the Museum Air Show for 2005, appointed as the Gripen Recce Capability Manager and also appointed into the Chief of the Air Force’s office as his Liaison Officer.

He recently completed a deployment to the DRC, where he commanded the Integration and Training Team for the members of the new DRC Armed Forces. Upon his return he was staffed as the Air Forces Corporate Control and Risk Manager.

He is recently married to Louise and altogether they have five children (three of his own and two of Louise’s) and also a grandson. Four of the children are out the house - either married, to be married or overseas in the United Kingdom.