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CONTACT magazine

By Michael Shave

Australian soldiers in France. Photo by Sergeant Janine Fabre
Poets Corner 

Memoirs of an Infantry RSM

08/01/2023 Mick Shave 776 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

In 1961, as a 17 year old, my service (REME) began amongst some very intelligent and witty National Servicemen. Against

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Trooper Jakob West from Rifle Company Butterworth Rotation 137 fights through the final objective, covering arduous terrain through dense jungle. Story by Captain Diana Jennings. All photos by Bombardier Guy Sadler.
Poets Corner 

A Reflection

18/12/2022 Mick Shave 521 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

Beside that track in jungle green (Bare the bayonet, beat the drum.), Sweat-soaked, dirty, thus unseen (Bare the bayonet, beat

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The State Gun Carriage, pulled by the British Royal Navy, carrying the coffin of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II as it moves along the procession route in London, during the state funeral of The Queen. Photo by Sergeant Jarrod McAneney.
Poets Corner 

Our Late Queen

30/10/202230/10/2022 Mick Shave 586 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

Tap, pause; tap, pause; tap, pause. A lonely sound which echoes round an ancient hall. And to its beat In

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Battalion mascot, Corporal John MacArthur IV – "S‘tan the Ram’" – during an 8/9RAR birthday parade at Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane, on 31 October 2014. Photo by Corporal David Cotton.
Poets Corner 

I Remember

17/07/2022 Mick Shave 667 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

I Remember Shouldn’t sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander? When first I joined the Army they

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Battalion mascot, Corporal John MacArthur IV – "S‘tan the Ram’" – during an 8/9RAR birthday parade at Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane, on 31 October 2014. Photo by Corporal David Cotton.
Poets Corner 

The Mascot

04/07/2022 Mick Shave 702 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Private Adrian Crutchley and Corporal Hawkins, 7 Section, 6 Platoon, 6RAR, within canteen 'fragged' in a grenade attack on their position in East Timor, July 2000. Photo by Corporal Kevin Piggott.
Poets Corner 

A Tully Moment

20/06/2022 Mick Shave 761 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

The subject matter for this poem suggested itself very early one morning at the Battle Inoculation Range when I and

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Poets Corner 

The Good Old Days

22/05/202222/05/2022 Mick Shave 890 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

In this age when bullying is such an item of concern I cannot help smiling whenever I recall my youth

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Photo by Corporal Craig Barrett
Poets Corner 

An Adrenaline Rush

08/05/202208/05/2022 Mick Shave 778 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Soldiers from Mentoring Task Force – Three (MTF-3) move away from a helicopter landing zone, after loading Australian casualties wounded by an improvised explosive device on a Bushmaster, in the Chora Valley, southern Afghanistan. Photo by Able Seaman Jo Dilorenzo.
Poets Corner 

There’s them, There’s us

24/04/202224/04/2022 Mick Shave 1013 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Minister for Defence Peter Dutton sits inside a Bushmaster protected mobility vehicle with Ukrainian Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko, talk to Commander of 1st Division Major General Scott Winter at RAAF Base Amberley, just before the protected mobility vehicle was flown to Ukraine to assist in their war effort against Russia. Photo by Kym Smith.
Poets Corner 

You Bastard

10/04/202210/04/2022 Mick Shave 912 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Royal Australian Air Force personnel from No. 22 Squadron load pallets of military assistance bound for Ukraine onto a C-17A Globemaster III at RAAF Base Richmond, New South Wales. Photo by Corporal Kylie Gibson.
Poets Corner 

Just Infantry

13/03/2022 Mick Shave 786 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Poets Corner 

The Reason Why

15/02/2022 Mick Shave 920 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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A Vietnam veteran lays a cross to remember those who died at Long Tan during a parade to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan at Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane, 18 August 2016. Original photo by Janine Fabre, digitally modified by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

Conscription – a tragedy

30/01/2022 Mick Shave 636 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Australian Army soldiers from the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, move on foot into the isolated community of Gipsy Point, north-west of Mallacoota, Victoria, to provide health support. Photo by Major Gavin Cole.
Poets Corner 

A Tribute

16/01/2022 Mick Shave 778 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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French children tend the graves of Australians killed in battle on the Western Front. AWM E05925
Poets Corner 

In Memorium

19/12/202119/12/2021 Mick Shave 858 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Poets Corner 

Teutorburger Wald – completion

06/12/202106/12/2021 Mick Shave 640 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Poets Corner 

Teutorburger Wald

21/11/2021 Mick Shave 808 Views 2 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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ghosts of Afghanistan
Poets Corner 

Duty First

27/09/202127/09/2021 Mick Shave 981 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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Photo by Sergeant Brent Tero. Warrant Officer Class 2 Paul Fuge and Keith Payne VC, share a non-alcoholic beer at Kandahar Airfield during Mr Payne's visit to Joint Task Force 633, ANZAC Day 2009.
Poets Corner 

A Modern Polemic

12/09/2021 Mick Shave 991 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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RSM on parade digital composition by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

Platitudes

02/08/202102/08/2021 Mick Shave 1008 Views 0 Comments By Michael Shave

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

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About CONTACT

Contact Publishing Pty Ltd is an independent veteran owned and operated Australian publishing business that curates this daily blog, a fortnightly newsletter and a quarterly magazine – only available by subscribing free (above).

editor@militarycontact.com

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