When Jerry Met Ali Ch. 01

As I held the phone in my hand on Christmas day 1997 I paused a moment to reflect on how all this had begun. In only six months I'd gone from nowhere to this moment without ever suspecting that it was even a remote possibility. Looking at my hand that day I remembered that it had also all begun with a strangers hand in a place a 1000 miles away.

I'd always loved sport and competition, rowing, rugby, etc so I was excited to join the Reserves when I was 18 and still be able to study Biology at University of NSW full time. It was the best of both worlds. I joined a medical corps unit that paraded in Randwick which was not far from my uni accommodation, job at the local bakery or the UNSW itself.

The training I received in the Reserves was unlike anything I had ever done before. I reveled in the physicality, discipline and the comradely. There were also plenty of other girls at HQ, especially in medical corps but the weight of numbers in the army was always with the guys. I didn't mind a bit. I really enjoyed their company and when the girls were alone, we still got to do the girl stuff (talk about the guys) that you might expect.

As I was a student there was always time for Reserves so when the offer came to go the Land Warfare Centre in QLD and spend two weeks in the jungle doing infantry minor tactics I immediately leapt at the offer. The plan was for the Brigade to send a rifle company to the LWC. The company would be made up of soldiers from all corps which meant that I would get to play rifleman for two weeks, not a medic, which was outstanding. We sent four people, Greg: the medic; Sue: who would be a section commander; and Lisa who, like me, would get to be a rifleman.

We formed up at the Engineer Barracks in Penrith for two weekends of lead up training: lots of PT and Infantry drills. There were plenty of Infantry guys there to help us out and I was enthusiastic to learn all the new skills. Our officers for the field were 2Lt Highman and Lt Collins.

2Lt Highman was a loud, confident, blokey-bloke while Lt Collins was thoughtful and softly spoken.

I'd been an infantry officer in the reserves for five years and the reserves for eight by the time I went to LWC. The camp was supposed to be an entire Rifle Coy deployed to the LWC on operation. The company was made up of soldiers from different corps and including, unusually for Infantry, three women. None of the women were in my original platoon so I didn't have anything to do with them.

I was their superior so I didn't not look at them as anything more than soldiers to train and command. However, my counterpart, 2Lt Scott Highman, had different ideas. He was very sure of himself and made it clear to me on the first night that Pte Bennett, the 20 yo student, would be his before the end of the camp.

I thought Scott was overly confident in his abilities, and a bit of a dick in general, but as I had no interest in a hook up, I really didn't care what he got up to. They were both adults but we were at a regular army base and fraternisation of any kind would not be tolerated.

Pte Bennett initially appeared to me to be hardworking but a bit of a tomboy. Her short blonde hair was kind of my thing but being in the army, wearing a hat and cams everywhere, often smothered in cam cream and covered dirt didn't do anything to enhance her femininity. Pte Bennett was also one of the best soldiers in the company. She was exceptionally diligent and keen to learn. I got the feeling that no one would be able to meet her high standards long enough to take her mind off her duty. This feeling was further born out when, in mid-camp, we all had to stand in front of the company one night and say something about ourselves. Pte Bennett said she was studying biology at UNSW but as she walked away, she said, "I also like blonde guys with big muscles!" I took it at face value, but I later wondered if someone(s) had already hit on her, and she trying to dissuade further suitors from cornering her.

I was having a great time at the LWC: learning new skills, making new friends, and getting paid to do it. Each night we would retire to our tent, talk about the day and then Lisa would inevitably start talking about the guys. She had a fixation on one particular guy and to deflect a bit of attention she would try to drag us into the conversion asking if we had our eye on anyone. We usually gave non-committal answers but then one night Sue unexpectedly said, "Lt Collins."

It was odd that Sue had said that because we hadn't had much to do with our officers since we arrived and Lt Collins even less so. The LWC staff had been conducting all the section training while the officers had been doing their own training during the day. We would see them around the lines in the morning and night-time and for PT but beyond that our contact was limited. 2Lt Highman was always there, leading the way, confident and very alpha. Lt Collins was more of a shadow. Silent and watchful, leaving the soldiers to themselves but taking command when the situation required it. I hadn't given any thought to which leadership style I preferred but found myself thinking that 2Lt Highman was a little too self-assured and, as each day passed, and increasingly more curious about Lt Collins. I eventually did start talking about him with the girls but at that stage the possibility of anything happening hadn't crossed my mind.

At the time the camp began I had been in a relationship with for almost five years. We had met at officer training and a few years later we also began to work at the same place in Canberra. She had been my first girlfriend, so it took a long time for me to realise that we weren't suited on many levels. If either of us had been brave enough it would have ended long ago or, if I had had my wits about me it probably never would have started. Our relationship had been falling apart for a long time before I went away to LWC. Mid-camp I rang home to say hello[1] and she told me that she was breaking up and moving out. I was 1000 miles away and powerless to prevent it.

By that time the first week of build-up training had been completed we had had so many injuries that our two platoons were reduced to just the one. Scott and I had to decide between us who would take command of the combined platoon in the field. We literally tossed a coin and I lost. Scott took the platoon, and I was given pointless busy work for the week.

The field phase was great but tough. I learned that the in the field an infantryman's life was restricted to just my section and often just one or two faces for days at a time. The terrain, foliage and tactical situation also meant that we were operating in silence or speaking in whispers the whole time. I was loving learning new skills and putting them into practice but by the 5th night in the field I was beginning to miss the warmth of a tent, the noise of a HQ and a conversation above a whisper.

In the field I spent a lot of time in CHQ and had not much to do other than talk to Greg the medic who paraded with all of the girls back in Sydney. One night he asked me about girlfriends, and I told him that I had in fact just broken up with mine. Before he could stop himself, he blurted out, "I know someone who'd be very happy that you are single," before he managed to bite his tongue. Later Greg would claim that he had told me the name, but he hadn't.

Eventually the LWC staff had had enough of two officers sitting around in the dirt doing nothing, so they grabbed the myself and the 2IC and dragged us away from the group. They loaded us up with a radio each and gave us distant grid reference. They told us that we were now going to do and escape and evasion exercise. We had two days to make it to the far way mountain and back to CHQ. We were told that a crack infantry section would be in hot pursuit and that if we got caught multiple times that they would gradually strip away all our equipment till we were buck naked. With a five-minute lesson on E+E techniques they drove us a few kms down the road and kicked us out telling us we had 20 minutes head start.

But they dropped us a field of mud. Weighed down by all the extra kit we could barely stand up as we sank ankle deep into the quagmire. The chances of anyone not finding our sunken footprints were zero. We would be run down in less than an hour by an even slightly motivated pursuer. Except that I didn't believe for a moment that anyone was actually following us. The objective had been to get us out of CHQ but I wasn't going to break an ankle trying to outrun a ghost or stumble though the jungle trying to locate a distant rock. I put this to the 2IC and whether he concurred with my assessment of the situation or not he was more than happy to hide out in the bush for few days and gradually sneak back to CHQ just before the appointed time under cover of darkness.

If the Greg's revelation, my breakup or the fake E&E exercise weren't strange enough one final odd thing then happened. It was the last night in the field, the platoon had been off on an op and was returning to camp and I was the designated guide to lead them into the safe harbour. While Scott was briefing his section leaders for the manoeuvre, I noticed the medical corps corporal looking straight past him staring at me. I stared back, not knowing what to make of it. She wasn't paying anything he said the least attention. Unless I was mistaken, she was giving me the eye, as best she could in the circumstances, but why here and now?

On the last night in the field, we came back to CHQ and Lt Collins was waiting to guide us into our final position. I don't know what happened, but I felt my heart skip a beat when I saw his face, even though it was covered in cam cream and unshaven. I just felt myself going all gooey inside. And then, obviously happy to see us, he smiled. His eyes lit up and I was smitten. From then until the moment we got back to the lines I just kept staring at him whenever he was around. The rest of the world just stopped seeming to matter.