On 29 April 1980, I signed on the dotted line for the Australian Regular Army and set off on an amazing period of my life. I have fantastic memories from those 21 years and made many lifelong friends.
I had no interest in the Army and had never really thought about joining. In 1979 and early 1980, I was working as a farmhand. In late February or early March, I was coming back from one of these jobs and had just turned into Strickland Street, Mt Claremont, where we lived. My sister Lyn and her fiancé Greg pulled into the street behind me and we stopped for a chat.
Greg had just finished at Kapooka and was about to start his cavalry training on M113 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), or as they were affectionately known, "tin cans". He loved it and reckoned it was the best thing he had ever done.
He must have convinced me, because we headed off down the street and pulled into home. I walked in the door and said, "I'm joining the Army."
Dad, I think, was in shock. I'm not sure what Mum thought, although perhaps I should have considered that she had lost her only brother, who was killed in action in Korea.
I reckon Dad was positive the notion would wear off. But within a month I had completed my medical, and on 29 April I turned up, signed on the dotted line and that night found myself on the midnight horror flight from Perth to Melbourne. It was my first domestic flight in a passenger aircraft. I should also note at this time I was 185cm and 65kg, Skinny as a rake and totally unfit.
Kapooka
I can't remember much about the trip from Melbourne to Wagga except that we boarded buses for the 450 km trip up to Kapooka. I had no idea what to expect. I still had long hair, was very unfit, wasn't into any sports and had absolutely no idea what military life was going to be like. So far, the military people had seemed pretty friendly.
We arrived at Kapooka and that's when the friendliness stopped. There was a lot of yelling and rushing around, and we all looked shell-shocked. I think we did 11 weeks at Kapooka back then, and Wagga was a cold shit of a place.
I can't remember the exact order of everything, but there were haircuts, kit and bedding issue, and the allocation of beds in the barracks. We were 24 Platoon, C Company, on the top floor of a three-storey accommodation block, with four soldiers to a room.
I won't really harp on about Kapooka. My memory is a bit hazy, but there was a lot of yelling, lessons, physical training (PT), weapons, drill, navigation, marching and testing. I think for the first four weeks we really didn't get much of a break.
I nearly died during the first lot of exercises and PT. This was probably my biggest struggle because I was so unfit.
We fired the SLR rifle, which was the standard Army Rifle of the time. I was based on a Belgian designed FN-FAL self loading rifle (SLR) but made in Australia, it was heavy and loud, and threw some hand grenades. This was all very exciting and what I thought I had joined the army to do.
Towards the end of our time at Kapooka we had some aptitude tests. One of them was a Morse aptitude test, where you listened to dots and dashes and wrote down what you heard. I didn't think any more about it.
We also got to list our preferences for Corps or job allocation. I selected Armoured (Cavalry), because I wanted to follow Greg, Transport, and I can't remember what my third choice was.
When we got our Corps allocations, I was told I was going to the Royal Australian Corps of Signals (RASigs) as an Operator Signals. I had absolutely no idea what that was, and the pamphlets they gave us at Kapooka didn't make me any wiser. Interestingly enough our Platoon Commander was a 2LT Ron Thompson from RASigs and we would run in to each other every few years over the next 21 years. I wonder where he is now.
Interestingly, the other recruits allocate to RASigs ere heading to Watsonia in Melbourne, which was the Army School of Signals. I, on the other hand, was heading to a place called Cabarlah, just outside Toowoomba in Queensland, to 7th Signal Regiment for my 12 months of training.
When you finished Kapooka, you had a big March Out parade and most of the families came along. It was too much of a trip from WA for Mum and Dad, so I had no one there.
It was bloody freezing at our parade. The middle of June in Wagga Wagga is cold.
Cabarlah
I didnt know it at the time but 7th Signal Regiment at Cabarlah was considered a holiday camp as far as army barracks go. It has a golf course on base and a guard house. The joke was you had to prove your right to enter, unless you were playing golf. 3 of us from my platoon were allocated as Operator Signals (Op Sigs), we arrived at Cabarlah all regimented from Kapooka and marching with our arms should height and very rigid. Every one else was strolling around without a care in the world. We got allocated our rooms, again 4 beds to a room but only 2 allocated, this was luxury.
Cabarlah is 15 K from Toowoomba, It has live in accommodation, generaly in the military referred to as the lines, this is mostly for people attending the year long training in Training Squadron or single live in members who have finished training and posted to one of the Squadrons. It also has an Other Ranks (OR's) Canteen (Boozer) on base and this is where most live in people congregated at night. The barman was a rostered duty for soldiers who have completed training. The drinks were dirt cheap. I think 20c per pot of beer or 50c for spirits. There were definitely some characters there at that time. One of my earliest memories in that boozer was meeting a crazy fucker called Billy Sheen, Bill and I became life long friends and still keep in touch to this day. I met another bloke who was one course ahead of me Evan (Scamp) Ray, didnt realise it then but Evan and I paths would cross many times through our career and we always kept in touch. On our first few days in the lines and the boozer we must have been goggle eyed, everyone was taking the piss out of us as the newbys, which is funny as some of the people stirring us had been here for 1 - 3 months. Note we still didnt know what we would actually be learning or doing except it had to do with a lot of morse code taking.