Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Latest:
  • Choules brings sea life to shore
  • Hands-on with HIMARS a unique opportunity
  • Capability calls up 10 Fires Brigade
  • The movers and shakers of the ADF
  • Secret lift shaft – part 2

CONTACT magazine

Australia's best free military news site

  • NEWS
  • Poetry
  • Podcasts
  • Fitness
  • Videos
  • Archives
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Write to us
CONTACT magazine

Poets Corner

Fay Howe, pictured in her late teens. Image courtesy Don Howe and the Albany History Collection.
Poets Corner 

THE GIRL ON BREAKSEA ISLAND

26/03/202126/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2178 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

Born in a light house, by Cape Leeuwin’s salty spray, She became her father’s keeper, when her mother passed away.

Read more
Poets Corner 

THE MAN I NEVER MET

22/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2029 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

At 11am the guns were mute, a calm was in the air. After four long years, the dogs of war, were banished from their lair.

Read more
Medals in dust
Poets Corner 

MEDALS IN THE DUST

19/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2001 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

I found them lying in the dust, they’d long since lost their glint. Who they had once belonged to, there was not the slightest hint.

Read more
Original photo by Brian Hartigan, Tarin Kowt, 2006, stylised 2021.
Poets Corner 

Where is the Real World

14/03/2021 Michael Shave 2030 Views 2 Comments By Michael Shave

This poem is for all those men and women residing in the Real World: – Stand at ease; Attention; Move

Read more
A Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) soldier turns on his Peltor hearing protection before boarding a helicopter in Afghanistan. Photo by Corporal Chris Moore.
Poets Corner 

I’M NOT HERE TO JUDGE

11/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1984 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

They did what they were trained to do, without question or fuss, And the last thing they expected, was to be thrown under the bus

Read more
A RAAF heritage formation at the RAAF Base Amberley Airshow 2008 – Mustang, Vampire, Meteor, Hawk, Hornet. Photo by Brian Hartigan.
Poets Corner 

A CENTURY OF SERVICE

06/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1720 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

The stench of dope and castor oil, no longer smelt today As small fragile bi-planes, rose above Port Phillip Bay

Read more
WWI Vietnam and modern nurse composition
Poets Corner 

WE BAND OF SISTERS

03/03/202103/03/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1469 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

To some we were the girl next door, a sister or a daughter Who nursed behind the Western Front, in the face of wholesale slaughter

Read more
Poets Corner 

Away

02/03/2021 Ben Fitzpatrick 1101 Views 0 Comments By Ben Fitzpatrick

I longed for your Black desert sky Bright stars Rotating low on Distant horizons Cold fiercely infinite Stripping ego From

Read more
Poets Corner 

Scars

01/03/2021 Ben Fitzpatrick 1106 Views 0 Comments By Ben Fitzpatrick

Now they all applaud Those who have walked in harm’s way Love washing away Some of the distant horror Lurking

Read more
Faces of Australian war veterans projected on a facade in Martin Place, Sydney, during an Anzac Day dawn service. Photo by Able Seaman Bonnie Gassner.
Poets Corner 

ANZAC Day

28/02/202128/02/2021 Michael Shave 1390 Views 1 Comment By Michael Shave

I thought “I’ll march this Anzac Day,” To Sydney thus I’ll make my way. But then, to set my medals

Read more
F/A-18F Super Hornet aircrew walk out for the final mission on Operation Okra at the main air operating base in the Middle East Region. Photo by Corporal Brenton Kwaterski, stylised by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

SERVICE BEFORE SELF

27/02/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1840 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

One hundred years of service, our Air Force has achieved – Sometimes the butt of friendly jibes, but do not be deceived…

Read more
An Australian Army padre on operations in the Middle East.
Poets Corner 

THE CHAPLAIN

21/02/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2124 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

The Lord casts his net, both far and wide, to those who feel they’re lost When the ways of this

Read more
Lieutenant Patrick Omodei, of 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, calls out enemy target indications during the Infantry Regimental Officers Basic Course. Photo by Corporal Brodie Cross.
Poets Corner 

At Day’s End

16/02/2021 Michael Shave 1214 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

Beneath the jungle canopy all is quiet, and very still. The heat it prickles up and down my back, beneath

Read more
Australian troops bound for Vietnam line the flight deck of HMAS Sydney – the Vung Tau Ferry – on departure from Garden Island, Sydney.
Poets Corner 

Those We Left Behind

15/02/2021 Michael Shave 1348 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

We of the Ninth in sixty-eight Embarking then for Vietnam; We lined the deck, we had such fun. You waved,

Read more
HMAS Sydney III in transit to Vietnam. Between 1965 and 1972, Sydney undertook 24 voyages to Vietnam, amounting to 25 operational visits to Vung Tau.
Poets Corner 

Boy Sailors

14/02/2021 Paul White 2269 Views 0 Comments By Paul White

I had a choice of Boys Home or the Aussie Navy, So I stepped aboard at HMAS Leeuwin in WA,

Read more
Recruit Cameron Douglas on his recruit course at Puckapunyal 1994.
Poets Corner 

Soldiers Above

14/02/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2142 Views 0 Comments

Hi Team, I wrote this poem in 1994 whilst in training with 2 Commando Company. It was lost for more

Read more
The sinking of the Centaur. AWM ARTV09088, adapted from WW2 poster.
Poets Corner 

CENTAUR

13/02/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1936 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

She posed no threat to anyone and sailed the seas in peace The weak were all placed in her, care,

Read more
Some of the hundreds of attendees at the Vietnam Veteran's Day service on Anzac Parade.
Poets Corner 

VETERANS RETURN

10/02/202111/02/2021 Ken Stone 1759 Views 0 Comments By KR Stone

Escaped the conflict, but not the battle scars, left the site of action, on far off distant shores. Returned, unlike

Read more
Vietnam file photo– no caption details. Courtesy DVA Facebook page.
Poets Corner 

He Died in Vietnam

10/02/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1548 Views 0 Comments By Bob Lange

I looked at the body lying there, The suntanned face, the short blonde hair. Ten minutes ago, he was feeling

Read more
Poets Corner 

THE ODE PLUS

10/02/2021 Ken Stone 1205 Views 0 Comments By KR Stone

They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old, age shall not weary them nor the years

Read more
  • ← Previous
  • Next →

Hours more reading…

OUR SUPPORTERS…



About CONTACT

Contact is an independent veteran owned and operated Australian publishing house that curates this web site and a weekly newsletter – available by subscribing (free) via Patreon.

Write to us via editor@militarycontact.com

 

CONTACT Air Land & Sea plus COMBAT Camera magazines were past publications of this business. Digital copies of both magazines can be viewed or downloaded via our Archives (see menus).

Main Menu

  • NEWS
  • Poetry
  • Podcasts
  • Fitness
  • Videos
  • Archives
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • Write to us

Admin Menu

  • Write to CONTACT
  • Sponsored Posts
  • About Us
  • Our Privacy Policy
  • SUBSCRIBE FREE
  • MUSEUM OF ARROGANT HUBRIS
©Copyright Contact Publishing