Soldier Values

There are numerous influences on a person's value system including but not limited to moral, ethical, doctrinal, ideological, cultural and social influences. There are also many individual values that make up the human Psyche. Aussie Soldier has focused on those which seem to occur over an over again when talking with the Australian Soldier. These include:

Compassion
"When you see death for the first time, it certainly changes your opinion of life. It makes you appreciate life and what comes with it more. The face of a dead person is like nothing you've ever seen before. Their face which had just being beseeching you with their eyes for help, trying to maintain your gaze. God, the way they look at you, now empty. Their hands begging you for food and water, or tapping your weapon, meaning they wanted to be killed by you, rather than the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Probably thinking our rounds were more merciful than the RPAs. It's something you don't easily forget your first death and I always remembered mine. There's one image I can never get out of my mind. A mother with a child strapped to her back, a little girl, and a little boy at her feet, all dead. I have a little boy and girl now too. Christ, someone's father, mother, sister, brother, son or daughter maybe. And there was nothing you could do about it. It was complete and utter frustration."
Warrant Officer Class One Kevin 'Irish' O'Halloran Rwanda

Mateship
"We were young but we were old beyond our years because that war was a rush course in maturity and survival. We would do anything for a mate, anything except leave him on the battlefield. We shared our last drops of water, or our last cigarette. We patrolled together, we slept together, we laughed together and we fought together. We even died together."
Gary McMahon 6 RAR Vietnam

Courage
"Courage is a very broad word, it can be physical, mental, or moral, I think all soldiers who put on a uniform, carry a rifle and go to work with the knowledge of kill or be killed shows courage"
Sergeant Colin Neave 8RAR Vietnam

Initiative
"There was a time when the Japs had us loading their ships. One of the blokes found some lipstick and he didn't know where to hide it so he could get it back to camp to sell it through the wire to the Chinese. As usual, Aussies will do anything to get a quid for themselves, so he put the lipstick up his bum, took it back to camp and sold it through the wire."
Prisoner of War - Private Tommy Thwaites, 2/10 Ordinance Workshop, Burma 1942

Loyalty
"One of the standout traits of the Australian soldier is that regardless of what the job is, he will do it, he'll make it happen no matter what. Like any soldier, go back in history, they'll question some things, and quite rightly so too, they'll question things, but in the end, they'll salute and get on with it."
Warrant Officer Kevin Woods OAM - RSM Army 2007

Integrity
"Accepting responsibility for my actions as well as those of my soldiers. As I have always maintained the buck stops with me and it is a corner stone of my career if you don't have integrity it is impossible to have a cohesive fighting unit. If you can't be trusted how can your commanders and mates trust you to do your job."
Corporal Chris Caspani 1RAR Iraq

Trust
"We were treating about six casualties who were placed along a wall for protection when shooting started. I wasn't sure whether I should continue treating them or take up a defensive position. I had a quick look around and saw our infantry blokes on the wire with the Zambian soldiers. As soon as I saw our blokes there I instantly knew I had nothing to worry about and was able to continue treating the casualties."
Sergeant Terry Pickard Medical Corps Rwanda

War Diaries and Letters

Whilst on operations there is little down time; however the Aussie soldier is always able to aptly prioritise the morsels of rest they do get and allocate this time to writing letters to family and friends or keeping diaries to pass on to loved should they not return home.

Diaries
4th May 1915
Arrived at destination 2.30 pm. Started disembarking ashore 5 pm. Saw to the guns coming off safely. Then Norman, Todd and self went for a stroll, just to see the sights. The foreshore is absolutely lined with trenches and graves. Our chaps lost terribly, and were driven back once right on the beach. The bay itself was strongly fortified and barbed wire was placed 80 yds out from the shore under water, so as to entangle the boats. Got back to the Battery and parked our guns. Bunk on terra firma once again.

5th May 1915
Got orders early this morning to get going. Walked about 4 miles to our advanced trenches. They (the enemy) didn't half shell us too. Saw a fragment of shell fire from 'Lizzies' 15 inch guns about 2 ft long, 2 inches thick and took me all my time to lift it with one hand. Saw a French 75 Battery in action for the first time. Also passed a 4.5 Howitzer Battery in action. As I am writing the Lizzie is letting drive broadsides about 3 miles away. About 100 yds to our left a 75 Bty is also letting drive like mad. Got to our rendezvous and started to dig emplacements for our guns. Relieved the L.Bty of their position. They are further over to our left. Opened fire at night. Got peppered in our turn. No casualties but there was a sniper who nearly scored one hit I happen to know about. No sleep. We are the farthest advanced Bty in this section fall in for the best part of their sniping.

6th May 1915
Our first big action. Fighting all day and going some too. Big attack on the town of Krithia and main entrenchments of the Turks. From early morning the British and French wounded have been passing us in a continual stream. This afternoon several infantry chaps were hit around our position and many were dragged into our pits for attention and protection. Sgt Selmes and Gr Gilligan slightly wounded. As I write this seated on the left gun seat waiting for the order to open fire again, they're not half peppering us. Our friend the sniper has our range and occasionally lobs one into our pit. We're after him tonight. Reckon he's had a fairly good innings. Bitterly cold.
Lieutenant Ralph Doughty MC- 3rd Field Artillery Brigade Gallipoli 1915

Letters
Letter dated 7th Aug 1918
My dear Mother, Father, Sisters and Brothers,
I am going into a big fight to-night and would just like write a few lines for one never knows what may happen. I cannot tell you where we are making our drive but you will read of it in the papers.
Well dear parents, brothers and sisters, should I go under you will know I have done my duty and have always tried to play the game. I do indeed feel very thankful that Charlie, Bert, and Fred are back home with you. I am going into that great fight with a good heart and with loving thoughts of you all, my ever fondest love to all, I remain your ever loving son, Henry. [Henry was killed on 19th September 1918]
Private Henry James Wright, 14th Battalion, AIF France 1918

Other Chapters

Aussie Soldier will also include chapters on:

The Larrikin
"We taught the Americans two games played in the country hotels in various parts of Australia. One was cork-a-loo and the other crow in the hat. They used to bite every time and would want another game to catch someone else. Corkaloo consists of placing a number of corks on the bar or a table. At a signal to go, the last man to touch his corks, shouts for the crowd. Of course the mug is the only one to touch his cork so he shouts. Crow in the hat is played by placing strips of paper in a hat with crow written on everyone. The man who draws the crow out of the hat shouts. As each one in the know draws a paper, they say magpie, lark, cockatoo, etc. till someone draws a crow. This was very popular with the Yanks but we always worked it so that they never found out that all the names in the hat were crows."
Major Meates 1918

Close Calls in Battle
"I was the M-60 gunner and was covering the rear of his platoon down a jungle track at night when a Vietcong silently slipped up behind me and from a distance of about 3 meters pulled the trigger of his AK-47. Through luck the normally reliable weapon jammed on a round and failed to fire. Upon hearing the click of the weapon jamming I turned bringing my M60 to bear on the Vietcong. I subsequently retrieved the bullet from the AK-47 and wore it around my neck for the remainder of the tour to bring good luck!"
Private John de Bont 9RAR Vietnam

Doing It Tough
"By the time we got round to Sananada our Battalion and our Company, like everyone else were getting decimated. We combined C and D Company's to make one Company and where we started out with 600, 700 or something. Eventually we came out at Kokoda, we came out with about 50 odd. We lost a lot ... killed, wounded, sick. If you didn't have a temperature at 104 they'd just look at you and say get back into it. The conditions we were in were primitive, primitive conditions up here. That's the worst, the worst; I wouldn't wish that upon anybody, no matter what they were. It was a terrible show up there, terrible. It was physical, it was hard, it was tough, you were wet, you were dry, you had little food your stomach got used to not eating. I eventually like others, were full of malaria. I had scrub typhus, you're just, you're weak. You had nothing, but you kept going you know."
Stewart Mansfield Kokoda Track