Award for managing critical systems under pressure
During Operation Beech, information systems technician Private Bailey Campbell managed critical systems alone across two different Mediterranean countries.
CAPTION: Private Bailey Campbell has been awarded the Conspicuous Service Medal in the Australia Day honours. Story by Corporal Luke Bellman.
Over three months in 2024, he was faced with constant technical failures and minimal sleep to keep the mission connected.
As the only technician on site, Private Campbell was responsible for the end-to-end maintenance of mission-critical systems, often coordinating directly with high-level support desks to resolve complex network issues.
He also provided remote support to personnel in other countries at all hours of the night.
“I had to be on the phone as the local support admin, whether it was 3am or 5am, sleep for two hours then I’m back on the phone for another three hours,” he said.
Private Campbell’s deployment was split between Cyprus and Lebanon, where he served as the sole point of contact for all technical hurdles.
“For that first month, it was establishing and getting set up; there were a lot of issues I got bombarded with,” he said.
His efforts culminated in a major two-week troubleshooting operation where he successfully restored a primary application, ensuring vital command-and-control links remained functional for the duration of the deployment.
For his devotion to duty, Private Campbell was awarded the Conspicuous Service Medal (CSM) in the Australia Day honours list.
“It was a total surprise. I didn’t know what the CSM was before receiving it,” Private Campbell said.
“It gives me a sense of achievement seeing that my hard work has been acknowledged on such a high level.”
Despite the intensity of the deployment, Private Campbell said the experience was challenging but deeply rewarding.
“It’s important to avoid tunnel vision during high-pressure assignments,” he said.
Private Campbell said it was important to be self-reliant and technicians had to be determined to find answers themselves.
“Definitely take a second to sit back and look at the whole situation.
Don’t be scared to ask for help and definitely try and find the answer,” he said.
.
.
.
.
