Friday, May 9, 2025
Latest:
  • A Lesson in Artificial Intelligence
  • “Publicly criticising an official Army position amounts to insubordination”
  • Navy strengthens Global Combat Ship links
  • Australian War College embraces overseas colleagues
  • 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe

CONTACT magazine

Australia's best free military news site

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

By Tomas ‘Paddy’ Hamilton

Private Frank Jelen of 3RAR sitting on an armoured recovery vehicle during Operation Overlord on the border of Phuoc Tuy and Long Khanh Provinces, June 1971.
Poets Corner 

THE PARTING SHOTS – Commemorating the Battles of Long Khanh and Nui Le

08/08/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1541 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

He was just a kid with acne, when he first wore his jungle greens About to learn the hard way,

Read more
Fromelles headstones. Photo by Petty Officer Mez Merrill
Poets Corner 

DON’T FORGET ME COBBER

30/07/202131/07/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1810 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

“Don’t forget me cobber,” the cry rang out from hell that was Fromelles bloody battlefield, where five thousand diggers fell

Read more
Bocker on Remembrance Day 2019 – superimposed over a slouch hat and boots. Background photo by Corporal Nunu Campos – Bocker's photo supplied by Tomas Hamilton – digital composition by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

BOCKA’S BOOTS

18/07/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1936 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

THERE’S A PAIR OF BOOTS, WITH A DIGGER’S HAT, MOUNTED FOR ALL TO SEE – A SILENT IMMORTAL TRIBUTE, FOR THEY’RE SURE TO OUTLAST ME.

Read more
goanna likes wraffies
Poets Corner 

MONITOR MADNESS

06/07/202106/07/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1876 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

The military has long had mascots, eagles, bulls and sheep, But when parades are over, someone has to sweep, The droppings…

Read more
Members of the Australian medical contingent carry trunks to the Landing Zone at Camp Bradman for backloading to Islamabad, during Operation Pakistan Assist in 2006. Photo by Corporal Damian Shovell.
Poets Corner 

THE OLD TEA CHEST

30/06/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1961 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

It’s just a battered tea chest, with its’ secrets long secured Within its tired and weathered frame, their future was

Read more
Australian Army Private Sam Randall and Corporal James Milne from the 8th/9th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment on Exercise Wolf Crawl, at the Canungra Field Training Area, Queensland. Base photo by Private Jacob Hilton. Digitally added to by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

 The Choko Vine

15/06/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2328 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

I had not long left the service and had so much time on hand, I tried to set up a vegie patch, on my little piece of land.

Read more
Australian Defence Force Academy Air Force trainee officers stand at attention during the raising of the RAAF Ensign at Commonwealth Place on 31 March 2021. Photo by Lannon Harley.
Poets Corner 

AVIATOR  (they can’t be bloody serious)

11/06/202128/06/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2117 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

After 30 years in the RAAF, I thought I’d heard the lot And there are times I’m sure, someone has

Read more
Queen Elizabeth talks with members of the ships company of the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth in Portsmouth on 22 May 2021, just hours before the UK Carrier Strike Group sailed for its first operational deployment. UK MoD Crown copyright. Photo by Petty Officer Jay Allen.
Poets Corner 

THE MONARCH

02/06/202102/06/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1898 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

In the canyon of Her chapel, She prays there on Her own, The Monarch of our Commonwealth, now She sits alone.

Read more
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 

THE MEDIC

22/05/202122/05/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1993 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

Young Jamie watched the old men, march on every Anzac Day And he wondered why his father, had always stayed

Read more
Australian Army chefs and stewards prepare 'hot-box' meals in a field kitchen at Shoalwater Bay, Queensland, during Exercise Talisman Saber 2013. Photo by Corporal Jake Sims.
Poets Corner 

THE COOK

14/05/202114/05/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 2414 Views 1 Comment By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

He had so many nicknames, tucker fu&%er and bait layer But when an army marches on its stomach, he is

Read more
Original photo: Sunrise in Section 35 of Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. US Army photo by Elizabeth Fraser/Arlington National Cemetery. Grieving mother digitally inserted by CONTACT.
Poets Corner 

The Gift

09/05/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1908 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

My shift was nearly over, I’d soon be on my way, The eastern sky would herald in, another Mother’s Day

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 2020

25/04/202125/04/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1532 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

FOR MANY YEARS I ROSE AT DAWN, TO HONOUR OUR GALLANT DEAD THOSE WHO LEFT OUR NATION’S SHORES, OBLIVIOUS TO

Read more
Officer Commanding BASG at Baidoa, Somalia, takes time out to write a postcard home. Photo by Corporal Gary Ramage.
Poets Corner 

The Last Letter Home

19/04/202119/04/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1742 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

My dearest precious darling it causes me to grieve, This is the only letter I hoped you’d not receive…..

Read more
Poets Corner 

THE EBBING TIDE

09/04/202109/04/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1715 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

The blood that flowed, on the Western Front, has long since ebbed its’ tide The dust of those who bravely fell, now part of our nation’s pride

Read more
Details unknown
Poets Corner 

THE WOMAN WHO SITS AND WAITS

03/04/2021 Posted by Brian Hartigan 1773 Views 0 Comments By Tomas 'Paddy' Hamilton

I WATCHED THEM SAIL TO HOSTILE SHORES, TO GALIPPOLI’S BLOOD SOAKED SAND OR THE QUAGMIRE OF THE WESTERN FRONT AND

Read more
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 2172 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 2027 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 1996 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
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 1980 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 1714 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
  • ← 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