Tales Of A No One Soldier

23/03/2026

A story about what happens when your helicopter has an engine fire over the mountains of Timor Leste.

Spoiler alert: I survive.🤣

Timor in 2008 is pretty safe. Unless your Black Hawk helicopter decides to have an engine fire mid-flight.

06/11/2025

You have to have a sense of humour when you're at war. And you have to find it wherever you can.

You have to have a sense of humour when you’re at war. And you have to find it wherever you can.

23/04/2025

Of the hundreds and thousands of Australians who have served our nation, so many of their stories are unknown. This tale tells just a few in the hope that more people will engage with our modern veterans, seek out their stories and that we try to be better at knowing the good, the bad, the heroic and everything in between.

Thank you to those veterans who entrusted me with their personal stories that are included here and to the many who for reasons of space only that I could not.

If you find this story interesting, please share with your friends, family and colleagues in the hope that tomorrow and the days after they may ask more questions themselves.

https://soldiertales.com/2025/04/24/unknown-soldiers/

The Unknown Soldier, buried in the War Memorial, represents all Australians who have been killed in war. But there are thousands of unknown soldiers who live among us, their stories untold, but wor…

06/01/2025

Platform 3 in Warsaw. 3 Families. 3 Stories. War can be hell in different ways to different people.

Platform 3 in Warsaw. 3 Families. 3 Stories. War can be hell in different ways to different people.

14/10/2024

It is Veterans Health Week this week in Australia and the theme this year is ‘Keep Connected’.

This is such an important issue for veterans (And others but that is for another time and place). Keeping connected is the critical piece to maintaining a sense of purpose, belonging and through that good health in all facets. And this is equally true if you are an ‘old’ or ‘new’ veteran.

I wrote this piece a few years ago now but I feel the message resonates strongly with the ‘Keep Connected’ theme.

Keep your tribe my fellow veterans. It is our home. And home is the place where when you go there, they have to take you in (Robert Frost).



https://soldiertales.com/2022/01/17/keep-your-tribe/

09/10/2024

One of the (only) benefits of my current nomadic, timezone indifferent existence is that when the phone rings at odd hours with a familiar number I am more likely to be awake to answer it.

Recently such a call came through; a veteran in distress, beaten down by red tape, procedure, relationship and addiction issues; all stemming in some way from their time in Service (Not that they were bitter or angry about that being the root cause). The veteran was exhausted. Through the support of a forward leaning and modern ESO manned by a veteran leadership group they are now getting the support they need and doing well.

As we did on whatever foreign fields or exercises we deployed to, self-help and buddy help is the key. Always ask for support. Always reach out to your mates. Always take that call.

Thanks to those good people in the right places the veteran is doing well now. You know who you are. Thank you.

02/09/2024

River crossing in Ermera District, Timor Leste, circa early 2003.

Lance Corporal Jayson Jamisola crossing a river in Ermera District in early 2011. Delta Company 5 RAR took over from a Portuguese Army Company and quickly spread out far and wide to ‘ground truth’ what was going on.

Here one of the sections is moving between villages, connecting with the locals. It was hard yakka at times. Jayson is my interpretor from the ‘Girls in the House Across the Way’ stories on www.soldiertales.com.

29/08/2024

Spring Patrol in Kakrak-E-Shaqzi. Corporal John Dakin leads a a fellow soldier of the ‘Jackals’ and an Afghan National Army machine gunner near the fields of Kakrak-E-Shaqzi in the Tangi Valley. The brutal winter has broken and the fields are beginning to rapidly produce crops. And the crops produce cover for those who would lay IEDS and seek to harm us and the local villagers. John carries a device on his back to black out remotely detonated IEDs. A life saving invention. Photo by .assignment

25/08/2024

Chasing ghosts in Bobobaro.

Soldiers of 12 Platoon, Delta Company, 5th/7th Battalion with some Timorese locals high in the hills of Bobobaro in 2003. Early in our deployment we patrolled the villages and hills of Bobobaro, or ‘Bob’s Monaro’ as the Diggers sometimes called it, and sometimes picked up friendly followers along the way. Often we were asked to follow up on reports of Militia in remote areas which were often just the village elders way of getting a UN presence into the area. The soldiers came to call these missions ‘chasing ghosts’.

This picture shows a section of soldiers after a long hike into the hills on one such patrol. The Timorese local on the right showed us the easier way up the steep inclines and did it all in bare feet.

24/08/2024

The Frozen Fields. The Tiri Rud, late December 2010. After pushing into the Tangi Valley and seizing ground from the Taliban for the new patrol base, the soldiers of Combat Team - Charlie patrolled aggressively through the valley. At times the elements were as dangerous as the Talibs as harsh winter weather dropped temperatures to well below -10 degrees. Here the river is frozen under the morning sun. When we crossed this river on a patrol early one morning, I didn’t fully feel my feet for almost two days afterwards.

19/08/2024

As a Senate Inquiry begins into how and why Honours and Awards were handed out in recent campaigns, will it result in recognition for those who truly deserve it?

Will honour unearned remain unquestioned?

How can we make good in such an emotive space?

https://soldiertales.com/2024/08/20/of-gallantry-and-gongs-gravy-and-gollums/