On 30 January 1961 , Headlam joined the staff of Operational Command ( OPCOM ) , the successor organisation to Home Command , responsible for the direction of RAAF operational units . He took over as Air Officer Commanding ( AOC ) OPCOM from Air Vice Marshal Val Hancock in April . Headlam was promoted to air vice marshal on 29 May . On 17 July 1962 , he was posted to RAAF Base Butterworth , Malaya , and took up the appointment of AOC No. 224 Group RAF in Singapore one week later . He was succeeded as AOC OPCOM by Air Vice Marshal Alister Murdoch . As AOC No. 224 Group , Headlam had overall responsibility for regional air defence and offensive air operations during the Brunei Rebellion in December 1962 , and the subsequent Konfrontasi between Indonesia and Malaysia that officially began the following month . Divorced from his first wife in 1956 , he married widowed social worker Vernon Spence at the Sydney registry office on 20 January 1964 . He handed over No. 224 Group to Air Vice Marshal Christopher Foxley @-@ Norris on 30 November .