By Michael Shave

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT   When hit by a high velocity bullet, The skull explodes and its contents spray Through shattered

Stand at ease; Attention; Move to the right in threes. Orders, orders, orders, Some of which were these. But really

You bastard Putin, what’s it for? Sending people off to war What reason gave you any right To send your

Just Infantry The Russians in Ukraine I feel for those Infantrymen Without the knowledge Of fire-and-movement; Who have been conscripted

After A Day at War (South Vietnam, 1969) In the gloom of each day when it’s dying Standing to is

The Obscenity of Conscription (and PTSD) He sits at the table nursing his beer, Scruffy, unwashed, a bit smelly I

A man remembered, Peter Bunn; In those days vigorous, full of fun. While we ‘The Company’ gain in skill (Training

I stand beside these rank, grassed, mounded piles of soil ‘Neath which the mouldering dead lie in repose. Their type

Read Par I to III here And so in frenzied lust it ends, the killing; Vengeful hatred why they fought.

Describe a successful ambush to me, please: Teutorburger Wald (Part one) Caesar cries. An anguish riven home By news that

There is a soldier whose actions in Afghanistan are being investigated. A helmet cam of him shooting an apparently unarmed

As a gathering of Infantry Veterans meet in the Australian capital to commemorate their Battalion’s participation in the Vietnam War,

A certain Australian Infantry warrant officer, a notorious recruit drill instructor, on arrival at Tan Son Nhut airport for war

Soldiers do as they are told, It isn’t fair that when they’re old, Those well trained men (and so well led)…

It is good to be proud of your service, Remembering what you have done. The trials and the tribulations, The

Comprised of three battalions and veterans every man, The brigade we sent from Moratai to occupy Japan.

I once killed a man briefly – for eternity.But first I watched him: He is untangling a vine that stops his progress. Engrossed.

November, many years ago, In youthful number, innocent; National Service trained then sent Them off – to Vietnam they went.

When I was posted at Duntroon As C.S.M of ‘weeds and seeds’, Its grounds I’d walk each afternoon, Reflecting on

When I was stationed at Enoggera, as a young platoon sergeant with 9RAR, a Merino ram was offered, and accepted,