Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Once the first six weeks is over, ADFA life changes
completely.
You start waking up in the morning at the same time.
You have the same classes every week.
You have a timetable.
You start doing sports during the evenings.
You start being able to leave during
weekends, things like that.
It's a very different culture for any other base, because
it's a tri-service one.
And there's also a significant amount of civilian influence.
So, perhaps, the tenacity of army life, that I'd believed
I'd meet, was significantly diluted, which was fine by me.
I understood that we would get less holidays.
I understood that there'd be lots of late nights and really
early mornings.
And you just get used to that.
Hardest thing?
For me is being separated from your family.
I'm from the Gold Coast originally.
So I only probably get home two or three times a year.
But there's always a phone when you get homesick.
One of the greatest things about coming to ADFA is the
friends you make.
Everyone's pretty close.
For example, a lot of the engineers will do their study
together and form close friendships.
It's sort of a long process.
But with the people around you, even if it's the worst
day in the world, just living with three army boys, as much
of a challenge as it can be, it's also quite hilarious.
And they're always in a good mood.
There are a huge variety of sports you can choose from.
And they take up as much of your week as you want them to.
And you can compete in serious state competitions.
Or you can just have fun with your mates on the fields.
Last year, I went to Korea.
Had an awesome time.
I competed in an international triathlon.
That was great fun.
It's definitely got the tri-service flavour to it and
gives you an appreciation about the other services.
I mean you've got mates in the other services, for example.
And that's what you talk about when you're in the mess, when
you're chilling.
I guess we talk about the military too much sometimes
when we're together.
But that's mostly what we know.
We have our own mess facilities, which means that
we have food served to us every night.
And it's kind of like a buffet line that you get in and take
what you want.
The highlights are definitely when we go off on our
single-service training and do, for example, air
force-specific training or army or navy
for the other guys.
Some of the cool things we get to do is a parachute course
held a Nowra during our second year.
You get to visit different army bases
every time you go outfield.
So we've been to Singleton, Puckapunyal, Holsworthy, and
[INAUDIBLE].
Digging pits and defending locations and chemical,
biological warfare, that's probably the best thing I've
done with single-service training.
It's difficult to explain to people before they arrive how
it does work, because you need to experience it to truly
understand how it works.
You can potentially have a really
good life in the services.
You can, in many ways, shape your
career, just stay focused.