Liz Cosson - Army veteran

An army family

I was born in Melbourne. And essentially, I grew up in many places, not only in Australia, but overseas in Malaysia and in America, and had some time in Papua New Guinea with school holidays because my father was in the army. And being an army brat, as we were fractionally known as we had the opportunity to move around quite a bit.

So I did go to many schools. But I learned a lot through my life, growing up with a father who loved the army life. He was an officer and so our childhood included many experiences, and understanding, certainly, from my perspective, the value of our family, because you rely a lot on your family and all those moves before you make new friends and new acquaintances. But I loved my life. I loved growing up in an Army family.

A tough start

I said to Dad that I did want to join the army and he and Mum would not let me join the army. They just, Dad said it was not a job for a girl. And it's certainly not a career for a girl. And in his time, of course, there weren't many women in the Australian Army.

So when I was leaving school dad, both Mum and Dad suggested I do business college and learn a girl skill, how to be a secretary, not this type of secretary, a typing secretary. So I did business college for 12 months, and then when Dad was posted from Melbourne to Canberra and I was working here in Canberra as a secretary at a real estate agent where I was a receptionist.

The head of Hodgkinson real estate says which consumers use and I'm I was his secretary and did all payroll and that type of thing. And I said to Dad, "No, I still want to join the army". And he said, "Well, I want you to become an officer, if that's what you're going to do". But they told me after I was selected, that they didn't think that I would be selected.

They thought no, the army wouldn't accept someone like myself, I'm only 156 centimetres tall. I was pretty spoiled, growing up to be perfectly honest. And Dad said to Mum, "They won't accept her". And then we got a telegram back in those days, and that was in 1978, I received a telegram to say that I had been selected and to go to Sydney, and to take the oath and sign up, which I did.

And they then didn't think I'd make the training because it was the first year that females went through a whole year of training to become an officer. And that was in 1979. And it was only a couple of years after equal pay for women for doing the same work as the males and they were testing to see whether the females could go through a very similar training to what they were doing down in Portsea in Victoria, the officer cadet school down in Portsea.

And it was tough. It was tough, and I didn't think I was going to make it. I remember in the May of 1979, I said to Mum and Dad, "I don't think I can do this anymore". And Mum and Dad came up to Sydney and just spent the weekend with me and hung out, with my Mum saying, "Ah, your brother knew you wouldn't make it". And it really did spur me on, that healthy sort of rivalry between a sister and a younger brother. So I went back after that weekend and I stayed on and I completed my year.

A resilient bunch

It was the first year for women to go through very similar training for the males and they didn't have boots to fit me. They didn't have the uniform to fit a female or boots out in the field. So females were given driver boots, which were smooth soled to drive a car, to drive a commanding officer around and they were affectionately called pixie boots when I put them on because the other girls had bigger feet and they were able to wear GP boots.

They didn't have the GP boots to fit me for the whole year. So you can imagine out in the field running through the field, doing infantry minor tactics as we were and I just kept slipping over. And so my pixie boots were known as my pixie boots, but also we didn't have proper obstacle courses like you did at Portsea and Duntroon.

So I'll never forget out on the parade ground in front of our administration block, they set up wardrobes that we would have to leap over, a wooden wardrobe. And it was a makeshift obstacle course, because they were just testing and learning a little bit about what females could do and our senior instructor, he was a Vietnam veteran and I still see Gordon Hurford to this day, a wonderful man, and I can still hear him yelling at me, "Cadet Cosson get up and run", or "Cadet Cosson jump up there", you know, it was just an environment where you pushed and pushed and I realised, females are extremely capable, they persevere and we were a pretty resilient bunch of females, 33 of us started and 21 of us graduated.

And we were so proud when we did graduate because we actually were able to show, look what we can do, even though we haven't got all the kit to do this, we did it. And all of those ladies that marched out with me, they really paved the way.

Doing what they needed to do

We just knew that we were the first and we wanted to demonstrate that we could do this. And we had a couple of soldiers who had then decided to enlist as an officer and go through their officer training. And they were great, you know, they wanted to show us and help us and support us because they'd been through it in different ways, through different recruit training because don't forget, in 79 female recruits and female officers, it wasn't integrated training, that didn't happen until the mid-80s.

So we were just prepared to do what we needed to do to show that we could do it. And I don't think I ever sat there and thought the army wasn't prepared for this. I just saw a group of officers and instructors that wanted to get us through. And they did what they needed to do to help us get through. They were never trying to demonstrate we couldn't do it. They were there to demonstrate we could do it.

Up to the job

There was a view that that some people didn't want women in the army, they thought women had a different place in the army. We recognised in that 12-month course, we were paving the way to say, "No, actually, we're not there just to take minutes at a meeting or make coffee for our commanding officers". I also recall, one of my first commanding officers had some visiting dignitaries visiting the unit and he said to me, "Right, I want you to look after their wives".

And I said, "Well, okay", but I was quite confronted with that thinking or actually, "No, my role is beyond that". So there was a little bit of that. But you also saw on the other side, where there were others who wanted you to demonstrate that there was a role for females in our Australian Army and throughout my career, that's what I saw, leaders who wanted to give you opportunity, leaders who knew females had that capability and that capacity. And they gave you the opportunities and you just you just follow them. Those that did not want you to succeed, you didn't follow and you were just able to demonstrate you are up to the job.

20 years preparation

Most of my roles were in logistics appointments for example in supply battalions. Down in Bandiana was my first posting in the warehouse. Then I became an administrative officer. Then I went to Sydney, where I ran a clothing store in Sydney and I then had opportunities to go up to Oakey, where I started to stream myself into aviation, spare parts, and I worked in the warehouse there.

So I was predominantly in logistics, streaming myself into aviation logistics, because I did enjoy that and had the opportunity to introduce with the Air Force logistics command, to introduce our Blackhawks. We used to have, the Air Force used to look after rotary wing and army took over rotary wing aircraft in the early 90s and that was my role to work with the Air Force and Army engineers to start to transfer all the rotary wing capability to army and introduce the Blackhawks.

And then we saw Cambodia where we had to deploy the fleet of Blackhawks into Cambodia, we had some real issues with supply chain and spare parts and I learned a great deal in hard work, but also learning our role and learning the importance of capability and particularly aviation capability. And that actually, I then was fortunate to be selected to go to Staff College down at Queenscliff with two girls with a group of male colleagues and Nova crouch and I did that here and once again, learning and just being able to demonstrate that women can do whatever women can, what they want to do, and the capacity and the capability.

So beyond Staff College, I then went into the land army and it wasn't that common back then. I went into the land army and went up to Townsville and served with the brigade but also served with reserves in Townsville, and learnt so much about reserves, and I've got so much admiration for our reserve force. People don't really understand that they have a daytime job and they commit to doing this in their spare time.

So I learned about that and then I went to the land headquarters as it was then or forces command now and Timor. Timor started where we were about to deploy our forces into East Timor first time, large contingents, first time since Vietnam. And as a logistician, understanding what we needed to do when a lot of our logistics support had been outsourced, we really had lost sight of a lot of our military equipment, and we needed that, we needed to know where it was, we needed to set up robust supply chains to make sure when we put boots on the ground in East Timor, we were able to sustain the force.

And it was really important work that we were doing and we had such a great team of larger stations and ops team and planning team. And we had great leadership from the land commander down, to get that force ready and it was such a privilege to be there doing that and doing that planning and then to be there when the troops boots were on the ground. It was a challenging time and a lot of people don't understand that build up.

But also to make sure that whatever we were doing back here in Australia, we're going to keep our troops safe. We had great commanders, General Cosgrove, of course, really inspired me so much. When we also had troops on the ground in Bougainville at the time with the peace monitoring group, and my role was there looking at forced rotation, and we were looking at the people going into Bougainville, and we were making sure that we're able to commit our forces to East Timor, but also make sure that we didn't lose sight of what the important work that was underway in Bougainville, that when I was selected to go as the chief of staff to Bougainville.

As I said, at the early part of my interview, that apprehension was there a little bit, I hadn't deployed anyway, but only been doing the planning and in the operations back here in Australia to say, "Okay, I'm now going to go into Bougainville", and I remember my colonel, he was the colonel for logistics support, and he said to me, "You prepared for this for 20 years, you can do this, just stretch yourself. Back yourself in, you're gonna do it". And I did it. And so when I hit the ground, got off the Herc and the team were there, and who was taking over from the chief of staff and the commander was there. I knew I'm ready for this. And then you just go,

The best I can be

I think that anybody who feels that they're not up to the job, just to back themselves in and actually have a look at the fact that you’re selected for roles because other people have confidence in you. So live up to that confidence and know you can do it. And using and channelling that, it gives you energy. It's a whole issue of don't become, don't turn it into frightened, flee.

Turn it into strength, to then do the best you can and work out, "Okay, this confidence in me to do this job. I'm going to do the best I can". And I've often said I'm not necessarily the best at any job, but I will always be the best I can be. And sometimes I can look out there and say, "Well, that person might have been better. But that person wasn't selected. So therefore I have to be the best I can be in this job."

The importance of logistics

The biggest job for me was when I was appointed into running all our military bases around Australia. And I had over 4000 in my team and over a billion dollars to make sure the bases and the troops that are on each of our military bases were being looked after. And it was during a challenging time, we were outsourcing in a lot of the support on the bases.

But having that opportunity to work with my team, and then work with the leadership across the services to say, "Well, what do you need to actually deliver your capability?" And my background had prepared me for that. And that was a huge highlight because it was the opportunity.

And it's, as I say, that I would have never been promoted to Major General if it hadn't been for that role because my whole career had built up for a role like that, to understand military capability, to understand the importance of being able to sustain and support that capability and to be able to balance it with the logistic support they needed and the base support they needed.

And to work with, again, great leadership, the CDF of the day, which was Angus Houston, and I still connect with Angus Houston. That was an enormous highlight for me. Interviewer: When you were speaking about Timor before, and the logistical challenge of getting ready for that you said, people don't understand that. But I’d go further and say people don't really know about it, because it's not what makes the news.

It's the people who are in Timor that make the news, but the work you do. No army, no military force can function without that. No, the front line is key to success. Absolutely. But you look at experience and lessons from previous wars where supply chains were broken. That's what the enemy is going to try and do, break your supply chain so you're not getting your fuel, use your rations, your water, your ammunition.

If you don't get that you're not going to win a battle. So certainly as a logistician, I knew my role was to support the troops on the ground. And everything I did was about keeping them safe, and every logistician. That's what they're doing, making sure that that frontline is safe and sustained. So they can fight the battle, because that's what the key was always going to be and all our planning was about that and everything, every decision we took was for that soldier on the frontline. Because if we didn't get that right, then we were putting them in harm's way,

The biggest deployment since Vietnam

At land headquarters I had a mix of a military and civilians and I have seen incredible people who have just wanted to work to make sure they that they were keeping those soldiers safe. They knew the importance of this deployment of our force into East Timor they knew that, and they were prepared to work incredible hours and go above and beyond to do that work, and there were two civilian males, I'll never forget.

They just worked and worked to do that. And so never underestimate the role of our civilians in our workforce, the public service. You know, some people think the public service are not putting in; they are. And then I had the soldiers and I had the NCOs, who were also doing that.

And as a team, it was such a team that just wanted to get this right because we knew we were making history with East Timor, the commander would stand up in the ops briefs every Monday, and he'd say, "This is the biggest deployment that we have seen since Vietnam.

What do we need to do? Let's get the plans right. Let's know what we're doing". Because the forces were preparing, you know, the battalions were preparing and our largest logistics teams were preparing. But we were the rear and we were making sure that supply chain was going to get to them.

Pre-deployment training

So being on land headquarters, I did have the opportunity to meet with those who had gone on previous rotations and those who had had experience in peace monitoring. So yeah, and we did that for every rotation. And certainly with your pre deployment training, you have the opportunity to get all those briefs.

And I'll always remember, in our pre deployment training, we were educated on culture and language and just getting to know about the people that we're going to support and never losing sight of why we were there. And it wasn't for ourself, it was for the people of Bougainville, to help them through a period of where they were trying to rebuild, and they were still going through hand back of weapons, they were trying to find that peace.

They are trying to rebuild community, they are trying to be rebuild schools and church and, and we never lost sight of why we were there. And it was for the people wasn't for ourself because sometimes you can forget that, that it's not about us. And understanding the perception and how they see you and their culture and gaining that appreciation to all that pre deployment training was key for the force when we went over there.

Making a difference

It was completely destroyed. I would explain it as they had imploded. They had destroyed the heart of Bougainville, the capital of Arawa where we lived We had a house there with the commander and myself and the leader from Vanuatu and from Fiji and we had a house in the middle of Loughborough.

And every morning, we'd go for a walk. And there was nothing. It was all overgrown, all the buildings that used to be the administrative buildings in the heart of the government, and it was all gone. There was nothing. And I remember getting into the records and flying to our different team sites across the island. And it was dangerous because there were definitely no-go zones, that we would make sure that the helicopter didn't go to.

There were incidents during our period there. There were still tensions between the different factions. Yeah, it was heartbreaking but the people, and that's what it's all about, the people, and being a female and it is a matriarchal society. They wanted to rebuild 10 years that they hadn't been able to go back to schools and the highlight for me was the reopening of a school and standing up there on the stage with the teachers and seeing the kids and the mothers and the fathers just saying, "We're coming back" and being able to go to church on Sunday with the communities. And it meant so much to this community.

An uplifting experience

They thought that they were different. They saw themselves more with the Melanesian culture than they did with Papa New Guinea at the time, because they were so dark. And I used to stand out the back and the lovely fern leaf, you know, it's wide underneath and the lovely ladies would put it on their cheek and just have the fern there because it wouldn’t come off, and they try and do it with me and of course it didn't work.

And they're just so warm. And you’re right, the males can be quite intimidating but the smiles and just to sit down and talk and they'd be happy just to chat. And they'd come into the headquarters and we'd have meetings on our back veranda where they'd come to the house to meet the commander.

And we talk and that was always what was so powerful for me. The women would talk to me more than the men would talk to me and that was okay because I was different because our commander was pretty intimidating. Frank Roberts, Brigadier Frank Roberts, he was an artillery officer. He was tall, he was big, and they could find him intimidating.

And I always thought it was such a great mix between the commander and myself because we were so different. And we'd be walking along together and you could see his height and me, proper boots, no pixie boots up their proper GPS and proper uniform. And it was just the most uplifting experience.

Being a veteran

When I look at my service history, and 20 years serving before I was selected to go to Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea, and I know that when I was asked to go, there was this moment of apprehension. But there was also this, "Oh, my goodness me, I've been trained for this. This is what I wanted to do for 20 years".

And you do, you serve to do what you need to do for your country and if you find some, as you pointed out, feel that they haven't served because they haven't deployed or they haven't had war like service - and I was talking to a senator recently and I'd listened to his maiden speech, and he said to me, and I mentioned to him I'd heard part of his maiden speech, and he said, "Did anything struck a chord with you?"

And I said, "Yes, you're a veteran?" And he said, "No, I'm not". And I said to him, "I’m sure you're a veteran, I was listening to your speech". He said, "Oh, no, I never had operational service". And I said, "Senator, you're a veteran." He'd served in East Timor and he'd served for many years in our Australian army but he didn't relate that to being a veteran, and that's something that we have really focused on in this department that we have, we rely on a volunteer defence force, to put up your hand to say that you will serve.

And if you need to, you will make that sacrifice for our freedoms and our values. And I said to him, "You are a veteran", and I want to make sure that message always gets out to anybody that has served. You go through all the training and you, every year, you step up to say I am prepared and I'm ready to deploy, and you go through all the tests, all the fitness, all the medicals, and all that readiness training that you do every year to say I am ready to deploy. And that is such a powerful thing, you need to own that and be proud of that.