Firestorm - 12. FS Chapter 12

With the property located on the Darling Scarp, there is a large variance in heights, with the lowest point of the property being 126 metres above sea level, and the highest being 418 metres above sea level. I could see that the navigation courses that I had set, were going to be a little tough for the cadets, but I felt that they would be able to complete the courses successfully. I was pleased that my old grammar school would not be one of the units involved in the week-long training course, as I had enough to worry about, without having to deal with them.

During the winter months, the amount of training at Bindoon and slowed to a small trickle, so the CO had me concentrate on putting the finishing touches to the cadet camp, and I had three Corporal’s that had been assigned to assist me, and they had spent a few weekends at Bindoon with me, laying out the navigation courses and assisting with planning the other training on the property.

With the training camp now just nine weeks away, everything was going smoothly, until the day of our monthly tele conference with the cadet unit leaders, were one of them announced that their cadet unit would not be attending the training camp, due to a number of reasons, that they did not want to be very specific. The CO said that he had a number of cadet units on the waiting list of wanting to be part of this training camp, “Which cadet unit is the at top of the list sir?” I asked, already suspecting that it is my old grammar school, which the CO confirmed.

At that point, the cadet unit leader of the unit that would no longer be part of the camp ended his connection, and another cadet unit leader came onto the screen, who I knew as my former Science teacher. “Well young Mitchell, how are you keeping, I was informed that you are part of the planning for this cadet” the teacher said to me, “It is Staff Sergeant Benning to you, thank you Captain Kenton.

Now that we have a full complement of Cadet units once again, lets continue with this briefing” Lt Colonel Harding said, and I gave a small smile after my former teacher was chastised by the CO, who continued to give a brief introduction on the progress of the planning for the camp, until he handed over the briefing to me, which resulted in Mr Kenton letting out a soft comment, which resulted in the CO standing up and walking out and he motioned me to follow.

“Stay here, I will be with you in a moment” the CO said as he re-entered the conference room, and I heard him say that this conference is being postponed till another time to be announced, before he walked back out. A few moments later in the CO’s office, “I will be speaking to the headmaster of your former school in a few minutes time, do you have any suggestions for a replacement Cadet Unit commander?” the CO asked me.

I was a little stunned at this request, and after a few moments later I made a recommendation, and the CO said he would put the recommendation to the headmaster, and let me know the results. With that I excused myself, and headed back to the office area, that I shared with my camp planning team. “That was a short meeting staff” one of the corporals – Gregson, said to me as I entered.

“One of the Cadet Unit Commanders has an attitude problem that the CO didn’t like, so he postponed the meeting, and he is calling the school in question to deal with the matter” I replied. “Let me guess, would that happen to be your former grammar school?” one of the other corporals - Masterson asked, and a gave a big smile and nodded my head. About half an hour later the CO walked into our office, and we all stood up and snapped to attention.

“As you are, I just wanted to let you know, that the problem had been sorted, the headmaster agreed with my view on the former Cadet unit commander, and he also agreed with our recommendation for a replacement, so you won’t need to worry about Mr Kenton anymore” the CO said with a smile. “That is good new sir, he was always an arrogant teacher, when I was at that school, all the students hate him” I replied with a frown, “The headmaster, also wanted to remind you about your talk to the school. We will have another teleconference at 1400 hours this afternoon, so I will see you then” the CO said and he exited the office, and I continued discussions with the rest of the team.

The second teleconference went smoothly, and the unit commanders were fully supportive of my involvement with the planning of the whole training camp, which I was pleased to see, especially with just one more conference before the event. The following weekend was forecasted to be fine, so I informed the CO that the team and I would be spending the weekend at Bindoon, which he was happy for us to do.

When we arrived mid-afternoon on Friday, we settled into our quarters, and spend the rest of the afternoon, looking over the topographical map of the area, plus all the notes that I had made over the past few months regarding to each of the activities that will be taking place over the week-long cadet training camp.

At 0600 hours the following morning, my team and I were having breakfast, and discussing what to do this morning, and since I had my own vehicle with me, I decided for us to take a drive through some of the bush tracks around the property, firstly going to the highest peak, at the south end the property, which is known as Tobruk Hill, which has some low trees on it, by they were thinly spread, to allow for some spectacular views of most of the properties higher ground, which has a total of 19 peaks on the property.

“I would like to get a viewing platform up here, so we can keep an eye on everything that is happening” I said to the other team members, “I agree with you on that Staff, would you make it a communications base as well?’ Corporal Hays said to me, “Yes, I think this should be our base for most of the week, so can we add a few items onto the list for things to organise. A scaffolding platform, about 6 metres high, a portable loo and a temporary water tank” I announced, and Corporal Gregson quickly wrote down the information.

“I estimate it being about 80 metres in height difference from where the vehicle is parked to up here, do you think that it will be possible to get those items up to the top of this hill Staff?” Corporal Masterson commented, “I was thinking of asking the CO to allow the Engineer Regiment, to help us out with that on the week before of the camp” I replied, and the other team members were happy about that.

With the hill being nearly 6 kilometres north east of the main complex, and 2.5 kilometres east-north-east of the airstrip, it is an ideal location to observe the training activities, and as I searched the area via my binoculars, I spotted one of the navigation markers that I had put into place a few weeks earlier. “EKU 839, which maker is that on the navigation plan?” I asked my team members.

“That is the 4^th marker on the 3^rd navigation path” Corporal Hays replied, having all the information in his hands, and recalling the rough layout of that path, “Good, write down 060 degrees for that marker” I said as I scanned the area a bit more before I spotted another marker, “JRB 173” I announced, “3^rd Marker, same path Staff” Corporal Hays replied, 107 degrees for that marker” I replied as I checked my compass, and continued to scan the area.

After about half an hour, I had located all 7 markers for the 3^rd Navigation path, and 5 markers for the 4^th navigation path, and I now had compass bearings for each of the markers. After some morning tea, I decided to send Gregson and Masterton onto the 4^th navigation path, to locate all of the markers, and radio in the latitude and longitude readings, so I could try and locate the markers via the binoculars.

Once this was completed, we headed back to the main camp for lunch, before heading north and then east, to check the highest peak in the northern half of the property, and when we did, I was only able to find two markers from each of the two navigation paths. I decided that it wasn’t important to be able to monitor all of the navigation paths, and so we located some more fallen trees and cut them into sections, for survival training.

When we returned to Campbell Barracks late on Sunday, Lt Colonel Harding was waiting for us, and he had a smile on his face. “Good afternoon sir” I said to the CO as I stepped out of my vehicle, “Hello Staff and Corporal’s, I have a little surprise for you all” the CO said as he handed each of us an envelope, and inside was signed orders for 6 days of R & R leave, dated to be effective from 0600 hours tomorrow.

“I thought that you four, deserved a good short break, so I will see you in a week’s time, well rested and ready for the lead up to the camp” the CO said to us, “Very well sir, thank you for this” I responded, and after placing all the information for the camp in the office, I returned to my car, and drove back to my aunt’s place. Explaining that I have 6 days of leave, my aunt gave me a kiss on the cheek and a smile bore resuming preparing dinner, while I went to have a shower and change of clothes.

The next morning, as I was eating breakfast at 0700, I made a decision to make that visit to my old school today unannounced, so I changed into a dress uniform, and sent a quick text to Lt Colonel Harding. “Sir, I decided to do the school talk this morning, so I will be going to the school unannounced this morning in dress uniform. S. Sergeant Benning”, and a few minutes later I received a reply.

“That will be fine, let me know how it went, Lt Colonel Harding” and I smiled as I read the message, and headed to my car. Knowing that there was a school assembly on the 2^nd and 4^th Mondays each month, starting at 0815 hours. I drove to the school and parked in the visitor’s carpark, and made my way to the administration building.

“My word, Mitchell Benning, how smart and handsome you look in that uniform” the lady behind the counter said, and I chuckled and blushed a little at Miss Wallace’s comments. “Now Miss Wallace, I know I was your favourite student, but no need for the compliments now that I have left the school” I said in reply.

“I presume that you are here for the assembly” Miss Wallace said to me with a smile as she retrieved something from a drawer, “that would be a correct assumption Ma’am, I decided to make it an unannounced arrival” I replied, and Miss Wallace smiled, as she handed me a visitor’s pass, “Off you go, or you will be late” Miss Wallace said to me before she disappeared into another part of administration.

I made my way to the gymnasium, where I knew where assembly is held, and I quietly entered the back of the building, where I heard the headmaster making announcement, and I saw him smile when he noticed me, and he turned briefly to another teacher seated on the stage, who was dressed in army cadet uniform. “For now, I turn the assembly over to Mr York” the headmaster said, and the teacher looked a little confused until he spotted me, and understood the unexpected announcement, and he stood up.

“School cadets, parade up front” he announced, and all the school cadets, who were in cadet uniform, stood up and made their way to from, and lined up in two rows in front of the stage, “Attention… Right dress” the teacher cadet commander announced, and the cadets snapped to attention, and shuffled so they were in two straight lines, “Cadets, right half step two paces to the right, left half step two paces to the left” the cadet commander ordered, and the cadets smartly did as commanded.

“Cadets on the right, left turn, and cadets on the left, right turn” was his next order, so now the two groups of cadets were facing each other, towards the middle. “Cadets, salute for our guest… Salute” the cadet commander announced, and once this was done, I snapped to attention, which brought everyone’s attention towards me as I marched down the centre aisle of the gymnasium.

Suddenly one student began to applaud, and soon the whole school was applauding as I continued to match forward. When I reached the cadets, I stopped, and turned to the right, and looked at the students, before doing an about face to look at the other group, before facing forward and marching up onto the stage. “Thank you for coming” the headmaster said to me as I shook his hand, “My pleasure sir, I have a few days off, so I thought today was the best time to come over” I replied, as I stepped over to the Cadet Commander, and shook his hand.

The headmaster motioned everyone to be silent, and the cadets sat down where they were currently standing, while I made my way to the microphone. “Good morning students and teachers, for those of you, who do not know who I am, my name is Mitchell Benning, a former student of this fine grammar school. I was asked to come and give a presentation to the school about my life in the Army” I began, and I gave a rundown of how I entered the Army, completing basic training over east, before being sent to do additional training in High altitude parachuting, and rifle marksmanship, as part of the Royal Australian Engineers Corps.

I mentioned that I am currently stationed at Campbell Barracks, where my main duties are planning and preparing for the coming cadet training camp, that will involve twelve cadet units, and I also supervise weapons training, which is mostly at the Bindoon training facility. I added that I had completed a number of courses before entering the army, mostly in fire and first response training, and emergency first aid, as well as workplace safety, and more recently I completed Volunteer Fire Fighting training. Having said all that I could think of, I asked if anyone had any questions.

One cadet stood up and snapped to attention, “Staff Sergeant Benning, could you please tell us what the badges and patches mean and what the ribbons on your uniform mean, and how you received them” the cadet asked before sitting down, “Yes I can tell you what they are, but how I received them is classified, so unfortunately, I can’t do that, I started, thinking carefully how much I could reveal.

This badge of the two - sided axe is for the Royal Australian Engineers Corps, the patch below it is the SO Engineers Regiment, the Eagle badge is to say that I have completed Parachute Training. Technically I am what is known as a first responder, for fire and medical emergencies, now with the ribbons, I will start with the least important one first, that is the ribbon on my right.

That is the AFSM – Australian Fire Service Medal, for coordinating the extinguishing of a bush fire and the rescue of a team of cadets, who were lost at the same time, the next medal is the DSC – Distinguished Service Cross for Gallantry, the other two awards I feel I don’t really deserve, as I was just doing my job” I said, not really wanting to go into more detail.

“Life in the army has many challenges, it can be hard work, but it can also be rewarding. Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to be part of a company, to fly to the Pacific, to assist with recovery and repairs after the recent cyclone and tsunami, that destroyed a number of villages on five pacific islands. The devastation of the natural disaster was quite horrific, but having the chance to help those people was an awesome and rewarding experience” I announced.