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,…
Tag: army
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…
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…