I was thinking about one of my mates from 3 RAR the other day and I remembered this story. We were in 9 Sect 6 Pl B Coy and it was sometime in probably ’86. Anyway, we were on guard duty (a weekday I think) and Nifty (Neville) Denton and I were on roving piquet. […]

It was 1988. I was recon platoon commander of 6th Battalion. I was also a smoker. So was a peer of mine, Mick Mahey (he might be a brigadier by now if he’s still in.) Anyway, we were like the Vietnam Diggers. We were with it; we had Zippo lighters, and boy, were we good […]

It was at Kapooka in ’88. The sergeant was from 8/9 RAR – Sgt Naegle. I also remember polishing the floor with the Canterbury cunt scratcher in front of the staff rooms. I placed the bin in the middle of the foyer so I could polish the edges. Sgt Naegle came up the stairs and […]

Shoalwater Bay Training Area (WBTA), Heavy Weapons Platoon (Hvy Wpn Pl) is the amalgamation of Anti-Armour and Sustained Fire Machine Gun Platoons. For you old farts it is now known as Direct Fire Support Weapons Platoon (DFSW). Anyhow, we lost a boss early in the year and gained a new one, straight from RMC. He […]

It’s funny how life’s lessons are often duplicated in the RAR. I remember the early 1980s in A Coy 8/9 RAR. We were out bush, very undermanned; our section was only six which soon became five. We had been digging every night, if not digging then out on observation posts, or sentry or gun piquet […]

It was quite a culture shock coming up the Pacific Highway in the Greyhound bus, seeing all the houses on stilts. It was very different to the double-brick lowset dwelling I had come from in Adelaide. I stepped off the bus at West End, opposite Musgrave Park. The greenery was amazing, and even at six […]

Lang Park 1981 Rugby League State of Origin A bloke called Reno A Coy 8/9 RAR, (can’t remember his real name) was standing on the terraces drinking his beer, when he had an urge to clear his throat. After a big “Hooohh” he spat a blob of phlegm out that hit the handrail in front […]

In ’87 we had a very effeminate guy backsquadded to us. The NCOs disliked him immediately. One day he slipped in the SAL and broke a collarbone. Every platoon member was interviewed to determine who “took” him out. Forty odd guys stated that he just slipped and fell. The NCOs applauded us afterward and gave […]

One day we were sitting outside C Coy HQ when Lt Ryan suggested we play a game of touch footy. Somehow touch became tackle; I remember a sergeant whose name eludes me made a break down the sideline. Mick Meehan aka Peewee ran across the field, cocked his elbow and sent the sergeant two metres […]

I burnt my arm with my iron while I was carrying it back from the SAL block. A guy was skipping with his toggle rope in the doorway and the rope caught the iron and pulled it onto my arm. He laughed, as I had to go to the RAP to have it dressed, as […]