Category: Living

Unlike most of Australia, the people of Rockhampton and its environs understand Singlish a little better, seeing as we have had a permanent armed forces base there and have trained there for almost a third of every year since 1990. The signboards we stick up everywhere help too: Signs probably seen in Johnny’s workshop Surf…

“Doesn’t this feel like an episode of ‘Band of Brothers?’ 3SG Gerard Tan asked anyone who’d listen, prompting another thread of conversation. “Which one?” “‘Bastogne‘, my favourite one, where they’re being bombarded by artillery endlessly in the forest, and there aren’t any officers around, and there are no resupplies of food and water”. Gerard was…

On Day 4 of the 5 Day ATEC Exercise, we came across the carcasses of some animals, decomposed enough for us not to figure out what animals they had been. Not that we’d be experts at what kind of animals they’d been, because ‘Australia only got three kinds of animals – kangaroo, koala and cow’.…

“Attention, attention… 15% off all kevlar helmets at tent #27… Hurry, hurry…” Outside the tent I shared with sixteen other soldiers at Samuel Hill Camp was a loudspeaker that blared out announcements about every twenty minutes, asking this soldier and that to report to where at when. Very annoying when you’re trying to sleep. The…

But reservist training just might. The average NSman (the official name for ‘reservist’ since 1992, but seldom used outside Mindef) gets called up for standby duties and training stints until he’s around 32, now that the ‘training cycle’ has been shortened to 10 years. I’m 36 and have just completed the worst three weeks’ training…