Terror Again - 6. TA Chapter 6

“Just to let you know, I have put in my resignation from the Army, effective from the end of my term of service which is just ten weeks away. That message and my call back… I have been ordered back to work for the remaining two weeks of my service, so you will be on your own for that time,” I informed Mark. “Oh!” I was hoping to be spoiling you rotten with some home-cooked meals,” Mark said to me.

“They are sending a vehicle to come and collect me, from the gate at the junction, in two hours, so I have time for some of your deliciously smelling dinner before I go,” I responded. After unpacking what I had with me from the trip, and packing all of my Army clothing and supplies, I sat down to a wonderful meal, before Mark drove me down on the quad bike to the gate at the junction.

I discussed with Mark the problems with the Army installing a locked gate across the road, as Mark wanted to sell his Humvee, now that he will not be needing it much now, and after I made sure that was what he wanted, I said that I would arrange for a barge to come and collect the Humvee to take it to the city, where I will arrange for it to be sold, and I would also send some more food shopping to him on the barge.

Discovering that Mark was good at Metal Fabrication, and in particular welding, I had discussed with him the idea of him building the extensions to the new boundary, including a gate across the road, after telling him about the purchase of extra land and leasing the boat ramp, which Mark was very happy to do, so I said that I would send the additional railway iron needed for the project on the barge, so he would need to use the tractor and chains to offload the supplies.

An Army jeep arrived a few minutes after we arrived at the gate, and I waved goodbye, as I reluctantly climbed into the jeep, driven by a Corporal, “Back to base thanks Corp and no need to rush, I am not in any hurry,” I said to the driver, and 45 minutes later, we arrived at the front gate of Robertson Barracks, and after showing my Army ID, I was driven to my quarters, in the Officer’s Singles Barracks.

As I was unpacking my luggage, there was a knock on my door, and reluctantly I called out to enter. “Captain, I am not too pleased about you resigning suddenly like this, I was hoping that you would be remaining with us for quite a few more years to come,” my CO said from the open doorway.

“I am sorry that you feel that way, but I will not be tricked and coerced into allowing the Army to use my property for training, and staying on in the Army for another period of service, especially when the Army has made a point of making it difficult for me to gain vehicle access to my property,” I responded, as I tried to keep my cool. “I see, well that was not my doing, but further up the chain of command, I must say that for me, I have enjoyed working alongside you over the past few years, and I will miss having you around,” the Major said to me.

During my lunch break, after a gruelling morning of training a new intake of soldiers into the regiment, I managed to make a few phone calls, to arrange for a transport barge, that is big enough to carry the railway iron and transport the Humvee back to Darwin, which would happen this Friday, and I sent a text message to Mark to let him know of the arrangements.

I was kept very busy, with very long days, and I knew this was because I was not going to renew my service in the Army, so I just bucked down and got the work done. Late on Saturday afternoon, after finishing, I headed to my quarters where I quickly packed an overnight bag, and with Mark’s Humvee parked outside, I jumped in and drove out of the base, where I topped up the fuel at the nearest fuel station and I sent a text message to Mark.

“Coming home for the night, be there in an hour, please collect me from the gate, Struan,” and I quickly received an “Ok, wonderful,” message back from Mark, before I shut off my mobile, as I was now officially on my day off from work. Less than an hour later, I pulled up on the side of the road near the gate that blocks entry to the rest of Leaders Creek Road, and Mark arrived soon after in my vehicle.

“Hey boss, good to see you again, I am glad that you have managed to get at least one day off work,” Mark said to me as I climbed into the passenger seat, “I am glad too, but I bet there will be a few missed calls and messages when I turn on my phone early on Monday morning,” I replied smiling, which had Mark laughing.

“The new boundary fence extensions are going well, although, it took me a bit of searching before I located the official boundary markers, and like what the Army had done, I have only made the 750 mm high off the ground, and so far I have made the south entry gate for across the road, and completed the 60-metre extension on the northern boundary, which was very easy to locate, and I have completed the 15-metres from the southeast corner of the current fence to the new gate, and 40-metres from the new gate towards the creek,” Mark informed me.

“That is wonderful news, you are a champion, my friend,” I replied happily. “Not at all, I enjoy the work, and it keeps me busy when you are not here,” Mark said to me. “Just one week to go, then I can settle into a new lifestyle without the strict rules of Army discipline,” I responded, “What will you do then, surely you have a plan of what you want to do,” Mark asked me. “I do, but I am keeping it tightly under wraps until I am officially out of the Army, then I can start on my plan for the future,” I responded.

After enjoying a wonderful meal cooked by Mark, I retired early, to try and recover from the heavy week of work, but as usual, I woke up early, and I went for a walk down to the boat ramp, before heading down the road towards the junction gate, which is approximately 2-kilometres away. I had a look at the big Department of Defence sign before turning around and heading back home, and I heard Mark in the kitchen as I walked in.

“Good morning, off on an early morning walk?” he asked me, “Yes, I went down to check out the sign at the gate, as well as the boat ramp. It looks like some boats have been landing there recently, I need to have a sign made up to let people know that it is private property now and maybe one on the new gate to say the same from the road,” I replied. “Do you wish to assist with some more fence building today, or would you prefer to just rest?” Mark asked me.

“Maybe just half a day, that way I can relax this afternoon before making my way back to the base in the morning,” I responded. After breakfast, Mark and I got to work to do more work on the fence, concreting in the upright posts, at evenly spaced distances for the remainder of the 450 metres to where the boundary reaches the creek.

After lunch, I rested and read a book while Mark continued with the work on the boundary fence extension, and when he came back in mid-afternoon after just over two hours, he informed me that he has completed another 40-metres of the fence line and that he will have to stop for a few days to wait for the new posts to be set into the ground.

While he was out working, I made a couple of phone calls, one of them being to a civilian friend of mine, who had recently acquired a 40-acre property in the Shoal Bay area, that includes the privately owned Shoal Bay Boat Ramp near the mouth of the Howard Springs Creek, which has in the past been used as a fishing base, with some accommodation available.

Over the past few weeks, I have been in discussions with him, to allow me access to his property, and allow guests to experience hovercraft trips along the creeks in the Shoal Bay area, and it would be an ideal location to have my larger Aurora Hovercraft based. I was also looking at the option of having a hovercraft ferry service from the Darwin Sailing Club at Vestey’s Beach, over to Wagait Beach, the first stop which is just north of Mandorah Bay, and a distance of 10 kilometres.

Travelling further to the west to Charles Point, which is another 15 kilometres, and down the coast to Bynoe Harbour to the second stop at Crab Claw Island Resort, which is 45 kilometres from Point Charles, and finally another 20 kilometres to the last stop at Dundee Downs boat ramp on Javelin Road, a total distance of 90 kilometres from Darwin, which would take about one hour, not including stoppage time for the whole trip and at the last stop, and by road it is just 28 kilometres to Dundee Beach, where most of the community facilities are located.

I decided to return to the base on Sunday evening, so I had Mark drive me to the gate, where the Humvee was untouched and waiting for me, and as I turned onto Gunn Point Road, I turned on my mobile and straight away I received several notifications of missed calls and a few text messages. I waited until I reached the township of Howard Springs before pulling over to read the text messages. All the messages were from Robertson Barracks, from the Major, the Colonel and the RSM, all wanting to know where the hell I am, and to report back to base as soon as possible.

I sent a text to the RSM letting him know that I was on my way back to base and that I would be there shortly. I received a response soon after, “Check in with the Major, I will let him know you will be in soon,” and I groaned when I saw this, and continued my journey back to base. After listening to my CO shouting at me or going off base, I waited for a few moments before responding, as I took out my phone and after a few clicks, I found the email that I sent requesting offbase leave and the one I received back, authorising me to have 36 hours leave as of 1900 hours Saturday until 0700 Monday.

The Major grunted dismissively, when he saw this, and said I was dismissed from his office, quickly exiting his office, I found the RSM seated at his desk. “Why did the CO not see my leave papers, and what was so urgent to have me back on base?” I said angrily to the RSM, “What leave papers, I didn’t see any?” he responded, and I took my phone out and showed him the email, which was sent from his computer, “Get your act together Warrant Officer,” I said to him before I stormed out of the building.

The following morning, at the start of a new week, I began work at 0700, to stay in the good books with the CO, after yesterday’s debacle, which was not my fault, and I spent most of the next few weeks working very long hours, and I decided to remain on base for the weekends, and I text Mark to let him know that I wouldn’t be home. I only got to check on my new Aurora Hovercraft twice, at the end of a busy week, where it remained in storage until I get the time to take it out for a spin.

At the beginning of my fifth week since returning from Brisbane, I was starting to get tired of the additional work that I seem to be getting, without any full weekends off for rest, and I was getting a little frustrated about it. When our Corps received an unannounced visit from the Brigade Commander, all of the senior staff were summoned to the conference room, and the Colonel tried to exclude me from this meeting, with an excuse that I had too much work to complete, but the Brigadier would not have a bar of it, as his visit was mainly concerning me.

“I have been reviewing all of the command documents from this Corp for the past month, and I noticed that one particular officer was doing a lot more overtime work than he is usually doing. After a few enquiries, I learn that this same officer is due to leave the Army at the end of his service in a few weeks, and I had some discussions with a few people, before calling this meeting.

Captain Kenrick, I must say that I am sad to see you leaving us here at Robertson Barracks and the Army, I am fully aware of the incident that you had to deal with on the Indian Pacific a few years ago, and I have just learnt about the latest incident on the Ghan. Have those bad men been caught yet?’ the Brigadier asked me. “No sir and that was the reason why I was given special leave since my brother was also visiting from down south at the time, and I made a trip to Brisbane to deal with some family business while on leave and was ordered back to work after I submitted my paperwork to end my service in the Army,” I responded.

“I see, was there anything that triggered this impulse to want to leave?” the Brigadier asked me. “Well sir, yes there was a reason, before going to Brisbane, I received a visit to my property out at Glyde Point from the Colonel, the Major and the RSM from my Corp, and they requested permission to be able to use my well-equipped property for training purposes for the Army, which I refused to give,” I replied.

“Yes, I spotted the paperwork for the purchase of railway iron to build solid fencing, and request to the local council for the closure of part of Leaders Creek Road to the Boat Ramp. I even went out for a drive out that way over the weekend and saw signage and a whacking big solid gate and barrier fence stopping me from going any further. Care to explain that to me Colonel?” the Brigadier asked my CO, who suddenly looked very worried.

“I was just trying to establish a new training ground for bush exercises, sir,” the Colonel replied, “And nothing to do with putting pressure on Captain Kenrick to resign for another term of service in the Army?” the Brigadier asked. “Well maybe a little bit sir, I just didn’t want to lose a good officer, Sir,” the Colonel responded.

“And the extra workload put on Captain Kenrick is another one of your tactics to get him to continue or suffer punishment for not resigning?” the Brigadier asked, and the Colonel remained silent. “Captain Kenrick, how much more do you have until your term of service is completed, and have you had any days off in the past month?” the Brigadier asked me.