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Speaker 1: Appoche production. So what age group do you have to

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Speaker 1: be to join the army? Is it?

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Speaker 2: So you've got to be twelve to twelve?

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Speaker 3: Well, cadets or cadets is twelve you go up right

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Speaker 3: up until you finish school and then army you have

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Speaker 3: to be sixteen nine months. It's like in your license really,

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Speaker 3: So there's a lot of kids that will literally get

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Speaker 3: their license and join the Defense Force all on the

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Speaker 3: same day.

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Speaker 1: So are you assessed that the cadets to see if

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Speaker 1: you can go into the army? Is that?

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Speaker 3: How? No, No, there's no cycle evaluation or anything. That

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Speaker 3: all comes when you join the defense force. So I

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Speaker 3: mean a psych evaluation. When you get to the Defense Force,

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Speaker 3: they try and play with your mind.

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Speaker 2: It is.

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Speaker 3: It's really trying to psych you out adjoining in a

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Speaker 3: way because I'll ask you so many ways.

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Speaker 2: If you were standing on the edge of the question

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Speaker 2: they gave me.

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Speaker 3: If you're standing on the edge of a cliff, one jump, Well,

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Speaker 3: everyone's going to want to jump. They want to see

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Speaker 3: if they can fly like, but nobody wants to hit

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Speaker 3: the bottom and not recover from it. But it's yeah,

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Speaker 3: it's the question that they ask, and they ask in

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Speaker 3: so many different ways.

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Speaker 1: Do they say that to see if you're suicide?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it is. It's just see if you're straight in

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Speaker 3: the head. And in this day and age, I don't

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Speaker 3: know how anyone passes. Wow, I really don't. Where I

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Speaker 3: work now, I see so many kids coming into my.

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Speaker 2: Store and I look at them and go dead.

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Speaker 3: Said, if you are my last line of defense against

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Speaker 3: anything coming into this country.

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Speaker 2: I need to re enlist because this straight out of kindergarten.

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Speaker 1: So you think it's a lot easier now to get

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Speaker 1: into the army than it's.

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Speaker 2: Got to be.

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Speaker 3: There's so many kids that are coming in and they

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Speaker 3: look at you and they go yes, ma'am, no, ma'am,

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Speaker 3: and like, oh my god, you still don't boob.

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Speaker 2: They need to go home.

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Speaker 3: And then you get others that come through, and you

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Speaker 3: can tell that they're born to do it.

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Speaker 2: That's what they're born to do.

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Speaker 4: Wet your when you were ready to go on the

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Speaker 4: army after cadets and what what what you have to

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Speaker 4: do and go through to get in there to be picked?

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Speaker 2: Oh okay, So I think mine's a little different to.

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Speaker 1: A lot of others.

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Speaker 3: I was. I was so special. No, see, I I

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Speaker 3: actually went in with a target on my back. Well,

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Speaker 3: because I was a cadet that you went in with

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Speaker 3: knowing that you had any background knowledge on the defense force,

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Speaker 3: and you sort of had that upper hand against those

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Speaker 3: going in green that couldn't tell the difference between the

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Speaker 3: north and the south on a compass. Yeah, you went

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Speaker 3: in with a target on your back. You were graded

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Speaker 3: so much harder. They basically rowed you to try and

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Speaker 3: make your fail. And because Dad was a commanding officer

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Speaker 3: of the cadet unit at home, and my commanding officer

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Speaker 3: of my unit, best mates and I got.

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Speaker 2: Easier for you, Well, it got me.

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Speaker 3: It was easier to get in in a way because

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Speaker 3: I didn't have to go to Kapooka. I didn't have

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Speaker 3: to go to Pakapano, so I didn't have to do

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Speaker 3: all of those extra boot camps and all that sort

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Speaker 3: of stuff. I literally did a two week boot camp

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Speaker 3: at Ingleburn at Bartia Barracks.

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Speaker 2: It's not it's not there anymore.

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Speaker 3: It's been bulldoze because of the asbestos.

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Speaker 1: You have to do it at all. Ye, So, how

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Speaker 1: was how was that?

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Speaker 3: So?

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Speaker 1: What's the training for? What's the two week training?

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Speaker 2: It's intense.

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Speaker 3: I think there was probably about eight females that went

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Speaker 3: through at the time. I think three made it through.

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Speaker 3: There was only two in my unit, and one she

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Speaker 3: quit not long after. Wow, you'd be walking around and

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Speaker 3: you'd have blisters literally the size of an avocado seat

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Speaker 3: on your heels, both heels, but you still had to

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Speaker 3: keep going.

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Speaker 1: Well, I know, sound like a stupid question, but why

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Speaker 1: do they make you do that? Is it? Is it?

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Speaker 4: I get when you go overseas and you have to

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Speaker 4: go to places you're going to be walking around, what

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Speaker 4: is it?

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Speaker 3: It's just your endurance. It's to see whether you've got

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Speaker 3: what it takes to push through, to see if you're

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Speaker 3: going to be a failure, see if you've got a.

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Speaker 2: Ticker or not.

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Speaker 3: Basically, look, there'd be some that they get through and

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Speaker 3: they get real easy. And look, I suppose the cadets

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Speaker 3: taught me the simple little things don't work. A power

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Speaker 3: football socks because of the fabric they're made out of.

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Speaker 3: The friction makes your feet get hot, and of couses

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Speaker 3: blood blisters.

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Speaker 2: Now, these blisters these people were getting, they're.

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Speaker 3: Not just your standard you know it's hot, I've got

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Speaker 3: a blister, They're full of blood. Like there were huge

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Speaker 3: big blisters on the back of their heels and then

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Speaker 3: that whole layer comes off. They're strapped up, their foot strapped.

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Speaker 3: It wasn't it wasn't easy.

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Speaker 1: What the males, how are they like with you?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? That was hard. They didn't like women.

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Speaker 1: So what what what you were talking to?

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Speaker 2: What we're talking ninety three?

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Speaker 1: So yeah, we talking.

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Speaker 3: When it was it was it was a man's army

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Speaker 3: women that it was just almost not a thing for

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Speaker 3: women to be in the army was almost frowned upon.

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Speaker 3: We were there to be a cook, a nurse, anything

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Speaker 3: but be part of an infantry unit, which is what

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Speaker 3: my unit was.

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Speaker 4: So back then it would have been kind of a

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Speaker 4: new thing for women to come in to be in

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Speaker 4: the army.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we were looked at as a protected species.

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Speaker 3: You can't do that because she's a female. She can't

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Speaker 3: go there because she's female. So in a way, I

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Speaker 3: was lucky when I went away. I had a couple

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Speaker 3: of fellows from home, one still with us, the other

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Speaker 3: one not now.

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Speaker 2: He actually that as tall as you. He helped me

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Speaker 2: a lot. He was like a big brother.

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Speaker 3: They helped me be able to do things that I

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Speaker 3: probably shouldn't have been allowed to do as long as

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Speaker 3: I've got my paperwork done. At six o'clock in the morning,

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Speaker 3: the truck would pull up to the front door. All

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Speaker 3: my gear would be on the back and they right,

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Speaker 3: let's go, we'll go under the range. But that was

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Speaker 3: then frowned upon too. It was like I was given

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Speaker 3: a free pass because I knew people there, and my

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Speaker 3: coo sort of gave me a free pass, which then

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Speaker 3: put a target on my back.

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Speaker 2: Just ride a little bit harder, make a break.

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Speaker 1: Were you welcome to by the mails at back then

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Speaker 1: or not?

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Speaker 3: Really, no woman was, and that's why a lot of

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Speaker 3: the women actually they didn't even finish two weeks.

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Speaker 2: Two weeks of training and it was intense training.

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Speaker 3: It's like you're six weeks at Capuk or Pucketpaniel all

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Speaker 3: jammed into one.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, it was it was hard, definitely hard.

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Speaker 4: Who was the most of the abuses Was it that

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Speaker 4: the guys who were training with you or was it

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Speaker 4: the actual people who were training you?

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Speaker 2: A bit of both. It was a mixture. It was

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Speaker 2: a mixture of both.

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Speaker 3: And look, as you can tell, I'm not exactly what

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Speaker 3: you call a tall person, so I was always put

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Speaker 3: right at the front so I had to set the pace.

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Speaker 3: We do a fifteen clicker, so fifteen k march. It

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Speaker 3: was full pack you had. So you had your twenty

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Speaker 3: kilos on your back, You had your webbing which was

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Speaker 3: fully loaded, your water bottles. It was loaded like it

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Speaker 3: was ready to go to combat with the weight. And

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Speaker 3: look if your pack, if you put everything in there.

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Speaker 3: Because I was only so little, my pack never weighed

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Speaker 3: twenty kilos. You'd find a brick in there. They had

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Speaker 3: to make it twenty kilos that you carried. They would

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Speaker 3: weigh it and they put it on the scales and

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Speaker 3: made sure it was twenty kilos before you went and

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Speaker 3: diach fifteen ks. And then you've got your hot uniform.

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Speaker 3: That uniform didn't breathe back then. It's not like it

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Speaker 3: is now. Your boots and your weapon, and it's not

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Speaker 3: the light little stiers that they.

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Speaker 2: Carry now which weigh nothing. Your shoes way more than

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Speaker 2: what they do.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes it was the old seven point six TOSLR. It

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Speaker 3: was the old long rifle that you see on you

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Speaker 3: know that we were soldiers' movies.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what we used to have. So having to

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Speaker 2: strip and assemble one of them and carry it everywhere

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Speaker 2: you went.

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Speaker 3: It was hard, it was heavy, and only being a

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Speaker 3: little pocket rocket it certainly didn't make life easy.

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Speaker 2: And they weren't allowed to carry it for you.

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Speaker 1: No.

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Speaker 3: I got there at one stage doing fifteen k's. A

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Speaker 3: couple of boys that come on, I'll take your weapon,

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Speaker 3: and I said, I had to fall back. When you've

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Speaker 3: got blokes like your you're height six foot plus and

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Speaker 3: they've got a stride, I've got to take three to

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Speaker 3: four steps to catch up to them, to keep their

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Speaker 3: pace for fifteen k's. I fell back and I ended

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Speaker 3: up almost middle towards the end of the pack. And yeah,

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Speaker 3: some of them just said, look, let me take you

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Speaker 3: take your weapon, let me take you backpack, just so

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Speaker 3: you can catch up, get your breath.

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Speaker 2: And then that was frowned upon.

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Speaker 3: And then they're getting screamed up because they're not meant

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Speaker 3: to And then I'm getting screamed up because I'm not

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Speaker 3: meant to hand my gear right, I'm meant to take it. Well,

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Speaker 3: when you're out in the field and you go under water,

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Speaker 3: you can't go on hand and you're packing your weapon

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Speaker 3: too somebody else.

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Speaker 2: But it was look, take the screaming at for doing that.

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Speaker 3: Or be screamed up by the entire DA battalion because

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Speaker 3: I'm taking one step and they're having to shorten theirs

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Speaker 3: by a quarter literally just to be able to down.

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Speaker 3: I had a couple I had a couple of nights

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Speaker 3: there where I almost almost quit.

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Speaker 2: I rang Mum and Dad and said I can't. I

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Speaker 2: just can't do this.

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Speaker 3: And I remember Dad saying, and my dad, let's just

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Speaker 3: say this. My dad is not the softest, hardest.

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Speaker 2: Person in the world.

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Speaker 3: He's yeah, he's a hard, hard shell. Grandkids has made

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Speaker 3: him a little violet crumble.

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Speaker 2: But he said, mate, you got to stick it out.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 2: It was hard because.

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Speaker 3: I never had to ask my dad for things, and

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Speaker 3: it was hard to ask my dad for stuff like that.

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Speaker 3: And I tried to talk to my CEO and he said,

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Speaker 3: you need to talk. Daddy said, I can't step in here.

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Speaker 3: He said, I'm going to tell.

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Speaker 2: You you need to stay.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I ranged Mum and she said, I can't

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Speaker 3: tell you what to do. Only you can do this,

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Speaker 3: she said, but you need to look back on it

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Speaker 3: and say, did I give it everything I had?

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Speaker 1: I want to listen to the episode in full. Click

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Speaker 1: the link in the description