About the Author

A military life

I grew up in a military family, both my parents served in the Navy. Which meant that we called our home the place we lived in, not the place we were born or the places where we went through school.

The youngest of two kids, with a sister two years older.

I lived in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, and then Portsmouth where I started schooling. And finished my schooling in Canberra before joining the Army in April 1980.

I joined the Army in 1980, and completed Basic training then Initial Employment Training at the Infantry Centre. After six months of training, with 15 peers I was posted to the First Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment in Townsville.

I spent 8 years in 1 RAR, which like many of my era was a second home and an extended family. The stories and experiences for No Angry Shots - We Were Diggers stems from my time as a digger and non commissioned officer in the First Battalion.

I then served in Singleton, at the School of Infantry as an Instructor, commencing in 1988; before finishing my career in 1994 as a Company Sergeant Major at 5/7 RAR, the Australian Army's mechanised infantry battalion. The next book in the No Angry Shots series will follow my journey through the Senior NCO years through to discharge and transition from service.

After Service

In January 1995 I discharged from the Army at my request. I had fallen out of love with the military system that I worked within.

I successfully transitioned from Infantry to IT, working hard, and leveraging skills and experiences that I had learnt and lived in uniform.

In IT, I had roles as an Instructor for my first six years, which allowed me to teach IT whilst learning new skills. I progressed from Applications instructor, to Systems and then Network instructor in my first 6 years since leaving the Army. My IT career, for so long an afterthought to my military service, soon became my life.

Today, I have spent 30 years in IT, with another 2-3 to wrap up my working career.

The final book in the No Angry Shots series will cover my journey from Infantry to IT and the experiences that I and others have used from service and leveraged in our careers.