The Cove Podcast

The Cove Podcast

The Cove Podcast aims to explore all aspects of Professional Military Education within the Australian Army. From short tips and soldier's fives to interviews of Army personnel on operations, find out how the men and women of today's Australian Army work towards professional excellence.

Episodes

June 15, 2025 55 mins
‘The guys are firing in bursts, but you can put a significant rate of fire down to allow us to extricate ourselves from a situation ...’ In this week’s episode, we are joined by a CH-47 Chinook helicopter pilot from the 5th Aviation Regiment in Townsville QLD. Recorded at the Avalon Air Show, our guest this week – CAPT Mac Purbrick – runs us through the state of play in Army aviation and how to fight rotary wing aircraft under all ...
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‘Strategically, Kashmir offers high altitude military advantage and critical water sources. Emotionally, it invokes pride, pain and nationalism on both sides.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about the most recent tensions in Kashmir, a contested region between India and Pakistan. Our guest this week – Dr Ashok Sharma PhD – is a Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales – Canberra at the Australian Defence Force Academy....
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‘Morale in the face of steel doesn’t always work.’ In this week’s episode, we take off from where we left off with the Bombing of Darwin and the Sparrow Force’s work in Timor combating the Japanese advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific. Joined by my regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, this episode is about the turning point in the Pacific, the Battle for Milne Bay. Following the Bombing of Darwin and Sparrow Force’s deplo...
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‘Mobilising the Reserve provides the Regular Army with a relatively quick solution for plugging manpower gaps and also the means to prime the pump.’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us again to talk about his reserve battalion.  CPL Mitchell Clark is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR). He has b...
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‘So, a fistfight ensues a couple of meters inside East Timor and the situation deteriorates very quickly.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it is like to deploy with no notice and little preparation onto an island that is on-fire and in turmoil. Our guest – COL John Papalitsas – was a brand-new infantry Platoon Commander at the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment when he got word that he would deploy his platoon to...
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‘You think your whole life is going to flash before your eyes but I couldn’t think of anything.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the defence of the Dili Aerodrome, using 2/2 Independent Commando Company as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not ...
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May 4, 2025 40 mins
‘Tough men wanted for tough missions.’ In this week’s episode, we continue with the island of Timor but go back to WWII, using Sparrow Force as a case study to examine a small Australian force going up against a large opposing military. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock – just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in the history of Timor first started. MAJ Warnock d...
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‘I taught 11,000 people how to put up a stretcher.’ In this week’s episode, the creator of the popular Instagram page Tuesday Night Violence Co. joins us to talk through equipment and gear setup. The creator – CPL Mitchell Clark – is currently posted as the Training Sergeant at 2nd/17th Battalion, Royal New South Wales Regiment (2/17 RNSWR) but spends his spare time providing ‘hot chips’ for diggers on fitness, gear and tactical pl...
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‘Language leads to culture and then culture leads to understanding.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it would be like to deploy to a pacific or southeast Asian nation using Timor as our case study. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock– just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Opera...
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Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer. Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates par...
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March 30, 2025 61 mins
‘Nations that win wars are those that subjugate the individual for the team or more importantly the cause for which you are fighting.’ In this week’s episode, we sit down with the Deputy Chief of Army, MAJGEN Chris Smith to discuss warrior culture. Join us as we try to define the warrior culture that we ought to aspire to in the Australian Army.   Warrior culture, MAJGEN Chris Smith argues, needs to be a culture that wins battles, ...
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‘You can’t discern where [the rockets were] actually landing and by night, the noise is enveloping.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about the conflict in Israel, Lebanon and Syria with two people that were on the ground on October 7th, 2023. Our guests – MAJ Mick Evans and CAPT Rhys Turner – talk us through their deployment on OPERATION PALADIN and what it was like being there when thousands of rockets started flying. OPERATION P...
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‘You don’t need to be dead to sell life insurance.’ In this week’s episode, we talk about how to look after yourself and those that you command. Our guest this week is the Senior Medical Officer (SMO) for the Directorate of Army Health – LTCOL Gordon Wing MBBS – who was an infantry officer who deployed to East Timor as a Company Second-in-Command, to the Solomon Islands as an Adjutant and to Afghanistan as a Combat Team Commander a...
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‘The warning time that they thought they had completely evaporated in a moment.’ In this week’s episode, we take off from where we left off with Lark Force in Rabaul, New Guinea as the Allies continue to combat the Japanese advance through South-East Asia and the Pacific. Joined by my regular co-host LTCOL Steve Young, this episode is far closer to home, focused on the largest attack on home-soil being on Darwin, Northern Territory...
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Serving in Special Operations Command (SOCOMD) is an aspiration for many and attainable for some. It is a popular choice for ADF members seeking to take their career to the next level and civilians wanting more out of life than a trade or corporate job can offer.  Recruiting is underway to identify the next generation of Special Forces Operators, Engineers, Signallers, Medics and Enablers. Depending on the role, some candidates par...
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'With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we can now expect Large Scale Combat in Future Warfare' CAPT Malcolm delves into what we might expect with LSC being one of the main strategies of integrated deterrence. This brings together Allies, Partners and Industry to achieve the desired effect; we must think beyond the land domain and even outside of Army or the military, as we are now working as part of an integrated force. He also explai...
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February 16, 2025 46 mins
‘[A] recruit instructor is … the first point of contact really, for a soldier’s journey’. CPL Numans explains that your main role as an instructor is to train your section of recruits in all the basic soldierly skills, to be ready for Army. You are with them from the moment they step off the bus, through all the drills and lessons, culminating in the field phase where they conduct infantry minor tactics. These are the basic skills ...
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'Black Dagger is our activity that gives JTACs the exposure they need to drop live ordinance in close proximity to friendlies.' In the first joint podcast between The Cove Podcast and Hangar 46, we host CAPT Craig Hogendyk (OC JTAC Troop) and Pete (a Fighter Combat Instructor at 1 Squadron, RAAF) to discuss all things Close Air Support (CAS). We discuss how to become a Weapon Systems Officer (WSO) or a Joint Terminal Attack Control...
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February 2, 2025 52 mins
‘It is really important to look at our defeats’. LTCOL Young explains that Rabaul is potentially one of the most shameful episodes of Australian marshal history. In 1942 The Australian War Cabinet decided not to provide any further reinforcements to the Malayan barrier, leaving the garrisons at Ambon, Timor and Rabaul totally alone with no evacuation plan. This set the conditions for command. COL Scanlan was the commanding officer ...
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‘We need to have the ability [and] confidence in ourselves … that we are making ethical decisions’. Today’s episode is on Ethical Decision Making, and with this quote, WO2 Campbell explains that the decisions that our officers and leaders often must make are so far beyond the immediate realm and have the potential for far reaching consequences. CHAP Bouzanquet deftly provides an explanation for the subtle differences between Ethic...
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