A sense of community
I grew up in Darwin, I did my schooling in Darwin. I was born in Papua New Guinea because my father was stationed there. He was in the army before me, we moved around a little bit. But then I did all my schooling in Darwin and then joined the Australian Defence Force Academy in January 1991… he'd retired in about in the late 70s but that sense of his experience of the army was strong.
Throughout our family, we grew up knowing words like duty first and three ranks on the road, throughout our lives and that had quite a shaping influence. Although dad didn't put any pressure on me at all. In fact, I don't think he really wanted me to join.
It felt like a natural and simple thing for me. And, and when I did join, and I travelled down here to Canberra and joined up at ADFA, I felt pretty much straightaway, a sense of community with those people who I joined with, like-minded people, similarly motivated.
"Duntroon was hard"
Duntroon was hard but I was with all my mates and it was hard for all of us at the same time. The thing about Duntroon is you're assessed all of the time, you know, the way, your reactions under the high ball in football, the way you carry yourself, if you're out on the tow, and you make an idiot of yourself.
It's not just the exams and the bush exercises. It's the whole period. And it's hard. It's a hard 12 months. And for those that don't get to ADFA, a hard 18 months. But I was very glad and proud to have graduated from Duntroon.
Operating as one
I got into trouble a number of times because when you're, in particular in the bush, you're supposed to have your signal operator, your radio operator with you all the time, so that you can communicate. But I felt that this guy was following me around all the time. And that kind of felt like the staff following me around at Duntroon. And so I'd often tell him to sit over there under the tree while I went and did my business.
And twice, I got busted by the commanding officer for it. And he told me in no uncertain terms, "Richard you have to bring your signaller with you". But there was one great moment that I've shared with junior officers over the years and it was a few months into my time as a platoon commander. And we were moving through the bush in Townsville on an exercise. And I called for a five-minute halt. And I checked my map and had a drink and maybe a quick bite to eat. And so we might have taken 10 minutes.
But then as I was packing up my map, and putting all my equipment back away to, to recommence the patrol, I'd done that and then I stood up. And by the time I stood up and looked around, the platoon was already up and already moving. And it was a great realization that a platoon kind of feels and thinks together and they'd seen me starting to move and without any signal or word, that was the signal for them to start to move and quietly and without any orders we just got up and kept on doing our business. And I distinctly remember it at the time of going, "Wow, this is what it's like, this is what they've been talking about", you know, the joys of a command where you're operating sort of almost as one.
A pioneer platoon
I spent three years in 1RAR and then one of the normal jobs of a new captain is to be the adjutant of an Army Reserve battalion. And so I went from one area to Perth to the 11th/28th battalion, or the royal Western Australian regiment and was there and Karrakatta barracks in Perth in 1999 and that's of course when the deployment to Timor all started with Interfet. I was anxious that I thought I'd missed the show there and then I got a call in late 1999 to say the next battalion that was on the rotation was 6RAR, "Would you like to be posted to 6RAR, as the Pioneer platoon commander?" and I thought that was fantastic because at that stage, I was going to be a third year captain doing a lieutenant's job. I said "Yeah, I definitely want to go".
And so I moved back to, I moved to Brisbane for the pre deployment training for 6RAR's tour but then we had the realization, the CEO at the time was Lieutenant-Colonel Mick Moon and he had decided that our area of operations in East Timor was in four different company areas and all of the specialist platoons in support company would send one of their sections to each one of those companies. And so as the platoon commanders we all looked around because we knew that someone was going to stay in Australia to keep the home fires burning basically, and we all knew that one of us was on the chop for that.
And then fortunately, I got asked to reinforce the intelligence cell and so I did that for the majority of the time, in East Timor other than a few months when we reconvened the battalion reserve and we used pioneer platoon to do that in order to chase up a number of militia activity and to have a reserve that we could plug into various areas that were that the CO was concerned about.
And so I did that for a number of months with a small platoon of pioneers and pioneers are a group of soldiers who have minor engineering skills and they're often sort of a bit of a ragtag bunch of fascinating characters and, and that was the case for my pioneer platoon in 6th RAR in 2000. It was a great team … they're all infantry soldiers, and they've got additional skills.
A high period of operational tempo
A typical day was giving an update to all of the command team on the various intelligence reports that we gathered from our personnel and our contacts, all that we had received from high headquarters or elsewhere, briefing personnel who were going out on operation, or briefing various staff and visitors, and there was quite a lot of those.
So it was a real sort of interpretive process of information from the field, of information from headquarters, and turning that into a language that was usable, and sort of operational for our soldiers going out in a really quite dynamic period and in Timor in 2000 because what had happened after the initial insertion of Interfet into East Timor in September, at the end of 1999.
What happens in Timor in the rainy season, they thought they'd all gone back over to West Timor, most of the militia groups, and then there's a large river that separates the northern part of the border and the river swells and it's difficult to pass but then in the dry season it comes down, it becomes really easy to pass. And so the militia had benefited from several months in various training camps on the other side of the border and then had begun to infiltrate back into East Timor to cause various disruptions, so it was quite a high period of operational tempo for the 6th RAR tour in 2000.
A dynamic and exciting time
We were actively patrolling all the time and it was really exciting. As a junior officer, we're doing the thing that we were deployed to do In an environment, probably not dissimilar to our forebears of the recent conflicts in Malaya, Borneo, and Vietnam. It kind of felt similar.
It's in a sort of Southeast Asian area, the sorts of engagements were similar in many ways, without the big ones. There was no sort of battle of Long Tan kind of scenarios but it was dynamic and exciting. Not without its stresses. But it was quite a remarkable time to be around.
The Anzac tradition
When I was a battalion commander in Darwin, as the CO 5RAR, I remember specifically addressing it on ANZAC Days to say, you know, you are continuing this Anzac tradition and it comes with the benefits of things like marching on ANZAC Day but it also comes with a heavy burden of responsibility and of keeping those traditions and expectations alive. So, for me, I definitely felt not that burden of history necessarily, but that we were doing our bit.
Basic accommodation in East Timor
We got there on the first of April 2000, the conditions were very basic. When I visited pioneer platoon in … one of the towns on the north coast, you know, they were basically staying camped out in a burnt-out structure.
Where I was, was in the old fort in Balibo. There was a few very rudimentary buildings there, but for seven months, me and my tent mate, lived in a tent and slept on a stretcher. It was pretty basic.
A poignant experience
One of the experiences that I really value was I got to go to mass at the church in Balibo every Sunday. It's a Catholic mass, I was brought up in a Catholic tradition, and I'd go there, mostly by myself. And I'd bring my weapon and my webbing, and I put it to the side of the church and then I'd sit in the pews and it was conducted in Tetum, of course, all the rhythms are the same.
And so I go up, and I get communion and then one of the things that was really striking, that has stayed with me for a long time, as the service would finish, the priests would be outside, the normal thing is to say thank you for the service to the priest and I do that, and then I'd stand, it happened the first time, which kind of surprised me, but then it happened mostly every time I went to mass after that, but I'd stand around, and I could see the parents send the kids up.
And the kids would get the priest's hand and would kiss his hand, kiss his ring. And then they come to me and kiss me, kiss my hand as well. And it was quite an emotional experience of their gratitude for our presence there. I felt quite uncomfortable at the time that they were sort of giving me that honour but then I kind of felt it was kind of a responsibility in that I was participating in their service.
And they were grateful for that, you know. I spoke very, very rudimentary Tetum and struck up a friendship with a couple of the boys and we exchanged sort of our, not letters, but our sort of English and Tetum learning books and it was a really poignant experience for that part of the deployment.
A personal cost
That was a really good deployment. Wasn't without its challenges and it wasn't without its personal challenges. I had a long-term girlfriend that I'd met in Cairns and then we were together in Townsville, and then we moved to Perth. And then when I got this deployment, she stayed in Perth and I went to Brisbane before the deployment.
And then when we flew back into Brisbane, she met me at the airport, and we went back to a hotel where we're staying and then she said, "Okay, well, it's done". And so that was a really difficult process, not a unique one of your partner, especially, you know, I was 26 she was 24.
Her life had kind of moved in a different direction by that stage and then she had seen, "Okay, well, I stay with him, we'd move again, and then we move again". So that was a difficult process and that's, as I said that's not unrepresentative of the challenges of deployment and moving but yeah, that had a hard impact on me for a little while, that break down.
Duntroon instructor
The next step was a real career highlight actually. I had always wanted to go back to Duntroon to be an instructor and I did, I went from Timor to teaching at Duntroon. And I did that for two and a half years and that was fantastic.
That was a real highlight. I really enjoyed the teaching process and having those moments with cadets, especially when cadets were doing it tough. I remember sharing that story of the platoon and moving off with a number of cadets. When they were struggling, you say, "Okay, well, it's not always like this.
Actual bush is not like Duntroon bush. And it gets better and it's a lot more fun". The time in the bush is hectic and the staff are almost under as much physical and sort of time pressure as the cadets, it's not the same but it's a full-on burden. I lived on base for the first year or so of that and then I moved out but it was a very social period.
