ANZAC Day is going to be a little different this year with the COVID-19 situation, but it’s so important that we remember the servicemen and women who fought to keep our country safe in times of war — as well as acknowledge the ADF personnel who are currently serving overseas, and here in Australia as…
Category: Military
Common Dog and the Lobster
As a third year Army officer cadet at the Australian Defence Force Academy, I spent the blisteringly hot months of February and March 1994 at one of the Army’s most recognised field training hellholes: Singleton in New South Wales. Whilst the Air Force cadets jetted between air conditioned Officers’ Messes during their Single Service Training,…
Cadet slang from the Australian Defence Force Academy
In 1987, a booklet of cadet slang entitled ‘LEGOLINGO‘ was released. Compiled by Bill Cowham, the booklet ‘put down on paper the peculiar slang used by cadets at the Australian Defence Force Academy’ (ADFA) in its first two years of operation from 1986-87. In 1993, my old English lecturer Bruce Moore published a book entitled A…
Relinquish control for better leadership
The traditional conception of leadership has the leader as the ‘hero’, standing boldly at the front of those who wish to be led, and possessing common traits of intelligence, drive, vision and integrity. Modern leadership theories see leadership as a more subtle activity, built less on authority and control, and more on self-awareness, emotional intelligence,…
Survival Training
‘You have just survived a crash landing of your aircraft in the jungle’, bellowed the Warrant Officer. It was 3am in the morning, bitterly cold and pitch black. I was one of about 150 officer cadets from the Australian Defence Force Academy, standing on a narrow dirt road in the middle of a thick forest, somewhere…
A Friday Duty Officer Shift Like No Other
On 12 June 1998, just a couple of days before my 24th birthday, I had the misfortune of being the duty officer at the 1st Infantry Battalion at Lavarack Barracks in Townsville. It was a Friday, one of the worst days to be duty officer, because it meant that you couldn’t enjoy the end-of-week frivolity…
The day I kissed the dirt
‘Make sure you eat breakfast in the morning’, the drillie said. If only I had heeded those instructions, maybe I wouldn’t have ended up ‘face planting’ into the parade ground – or ‘baconing’ as it was known in cadet lingo – during the 1992 Graduation Parade at the Australian Defence Force Academy. As first year…
Are you a tampon, Wehner?
I was amused to read an article on Business Insider recently entitled: ‘Military personnel share amazing one-liners from drill instructors‘. My favourite one-liners from the article: ‘Every time you open your mouth, stupid just falls out’ ‘Do it again and I’ll paper cut your pee hole’ ‘You’re a communist plot to fuck up my Marine…