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My name's Lt.
Rebecca Marlow.
I am a Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical
Engineer officer.
I've always wanted to join the army.
I love going bush.
I love going overseas on operations.
I've had a very diverse career.
I've been overseas.
I've done security tasks for the Commonwealth Games, and,
every day, I do something different.
Following officer training, I was actually selected to go to
East Timor and be a liaison officer
with an infantry battery.
Timor was a real challenge.
My mission was, basically, just to go around and talk to
the locals, talk to non-government agencies, talk
to the United Nations, the police, the United Nations
police, and local government people and find out what's
going on and how they're coping with everything.
I would then provide information back to our
headquarters so that they could have a better picture of
what's actually going on within the country.
The things I learned and the experiences I gained in East
Timor have given me the confidence that I know that,
whenever I go away again, I'm going to be able to meet the
challenges, whatever may come up.
Things I look forward to, outside of work time, getting
dressed up, going to the races, you wear the high heels
and the nice dress, things like that, going out.
There's a lot of socialising.
People go around their houses for
barbecues and a few drinks.
We have cocktail and all that stuff.
Everyone always makes an effort to dress up.
The unit I'm with currently is preparing to deploy to
Kalumburu which a remote location in
northern Western Australia.
And we're building a new medical facility for the local
aboriginal community and a barge loading ramp, so they
can get their supplies more easily.
There's about 175 people that are going in
to do all the work.
And we've got medical troops coming in
to teach basic hygiene.
We've got carpenters and welders coming in to teach the
Aborigines how to do carpentry work and welding.
It's pretty full on.
We're taking in a whole heap of heavy engineer equipment,
bulldozers, graders, concrete trucks.
And they'll also be the general maintenance vehicles,
which my guys drive.
I think there's about 30, 40 vehicles.
And it's a mammoth task.
And we've got to do the maintenance for all of those
while we're out there.
I run the workshop.
So I have 20 mechanics under my direct command maintaining
all the different types of equipment that
we're taking with us.
And not just vehicle mechanics, but radio
mechanics, and weapon mechanics, and recovery
mechanics who actually recover vehicles when they break down.
The only way to get all of our equipment to this location is
by barge, so, logistically, it's harder to deploy to this
place than it is for the Army to deployed to East Timor--
and it's in Australia.
The goal for myself for Kalumburu is to provide the
best logistical support possible to the engineers that
are in there building all the facilities and making sure
that everything runs smoothly.
The job gives more self confidence.
With all the physical training you do,
you're fit, you're healthy.
The lifestyle we lead is a very active lifestyle, and it
really is a rewarding job.