July 17, 2024 • 30 mins
In this episode of the Invisible Injuries podcast, host Andy Fermo sits down with John Giampino, a 31-year veteran of the Royal Australian Corps of Transport and an ambassador for "I've Got Your Six." John's extensive military career began with his enlistment in the Melbourne University Regiment and transitioned into full-time service in 1985. He shares his experiences from initial training at Kapooka to various deployments, including peacekeeping missions in Bougainville and East Timor.
John's vivid recollections paint a detailed picture of life in the military, from the rigors of training designed to build resilience and condition soldiers for the demands of service, to the challenges and camaraderie of operational deployments. He discusses the unique aspects of water transport, including the critical role of teamwork and the necessity of being self-reliant while at sea.
A significant portion of the conversation focuses on John's deployment to Bougainville during a time of unrest. He describes the initial shock of landing in a conflict zone and the importance of building trust with the local population, highlighting an incident where his quick action helped rescue a helicopter crew from a crash. John's accounts underscore the unpredictable nature of military operations and the resilience required to navigate them.
The episode also delves into the importance of self-care and mental health for veterans. John discusses the necessity of support networks and the role of organizations like "I've Got Your Six" in providing essential services to veterans. His insights into the mental and emotional challenges faced by service members are invaluable for both veterans and their support networks.
Throughout the episode, Andy and John maintain a conversational tone, balancing the gravity of the topics discussed with moments of light-hearted banter, reflecting the close-knit community within the military. This episode is a compelling listen for veterans, first responders, and anyone interested in the lived experiences of those who serve.
Contact - John Giampino
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/igySIXfoundation
Website: https://igy6.com.au/
Help Lines Open Arms (VVCS) | Lifeline | RedSix app
"RESPECT, NO POLITICS, WE'RE VOLUNTEERS"
Disclaimer: The accounts and stories are "Real lived experiences" of our guests some of the content may trigger Post Traumatic Stress (PTS) symptoms in some of our audience. Feedback regarding other organisations, courses and initiatives remains largely unsensored. Whether its good or bad they remain the OPINION of our guests and their experiences it is important in building an accurate statistic on what really happens.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Claire Fermo (00:04):
Welcome to invisible injuries podcast,
aimed at bettering the wellbeing and mental health
veterans, first responders intheir immediate support
experiencing post traumaticstress. By sharing the stories
of the lived experiences of ourpeers, or support staff and the
clinicians, it's our aim to makesure we can have a meaningful
(00:27):
connection with our audience,and give them the ideas for
their own self care plan. If youdo like what you're hearing,
subscribe to the channel andshare it with your friends.
Lastly, these stories may be atrigger for your post traumatic
stress. If your PTSD istriggered, we have links to
(00:48):
support in the description. Orif it's immediate, please call
lifeline on 1311 14. Here's yourhost, Andy fermo.
Andy Fermo (01:03):
G'day everyone, and welcome to the invisible
injuries podcast. In today'sepisode I have I've got your six
Ambassador John, John Pino, whois also a 31 year Army veteran
was with the Royal Australiancorps of transport said, Thank
you so much for joining us onthe podcast today, John,
Unknown (01:25):
thank you for actually inviting me on board. Yes,
Andy Fermo (01:28):
mate. And it's good stuff that you're doing as an
ambassador with I've got yoursix and we'll speak to that and
unpack the amazing work thatyou're doing with them, as well
as what you've been doing withyour business. I can fix that,
and how that's helping veteransas well. And we'll unpack that
in a bit. But before then,right, let's learn a little bit
more about John. So what was it31 years in the military? That's
(01:51):
a bloody long time. So what wasit that drew you to joining the
army in the first place, man,okay,
Unknown (01:57):
pretty much back in the day when I did decide to join
the regular army I was in thearmy was right a man's love the
job. I was with the MelbourneUniversity regiments I was an
Infantry Regiment, and loveddoing what I was doing with them
so much so that I thought thatby love doing the reserves, I'm
gonna love doing the regulararmy. So at the tender age of
(02:21):
just under 19 years of age, Ijoined up which was back in May
85. Wow. Isn't a long time ago.
Yeah,
Andy Fermo (02:29):
no. 85 made it?
Yeah, we do. And so it was to beable to stay. There's so many of
the even like with some of thecontemporary veterans there in
the audience. And 1985 There wasa well before their time. But so
can you paint a bit of a pictureof what when you joined what the
military was like, or even goingthrough? Kapooka? Yeah, for
Unknown (02:51):
sure. When I joined up, it was actually I was recruited
by army recruits the reweddingto the recruiting station, there
was no such thing as civilians.
Back then it was all done by ourDefence personnel. And of
course, your weight through yourbigotry, testing and whatnot all
sudden got the letter in themail probably about a month
later saying yes, you've passedher assessments and you can
(03:14):
marching to Holland Street andfrom there will catch a bus over
to Kapooka. There was none ofthis waiting for 612 a day in
our mouths. Literally, I was onthat bus heading towards
Kapooka. Yeah. And once wearrived, that's when everything
just hit us all at once. It wassprained the hobos jumped on the
(03:35):
bus, told you what to do? How doI line up when basically told
you to shut up? And so they do.
And that was the intro to thedefence poles. So we lined up
there in three rounds. And wetried to march down to the
lines. And literally, it was nonstop for three months. So it was
(03:56):
all to do with conditioning.
Because you know, sinceeverybody's civilian when they
jump off that bus and they wantto get rid of that civilian
aspect of that person's life. SoI literally as you can
appreciate, they'll break youdown right down to where you're
almost broken. And from there,they start building you up the
way they want you to become anact. So literally, they're
(04:19):
building up a soldier. Yeah, Iwas three months who Kapooka
completed all my assessments.
The one thing I didn't want todo is be back squatted. So I
studied and played Dowassessments marched out and I
marched out riding to Australianquarter transport water
transport section.
Andy Fermo (04:39):
Right so with that, I know that you've been to that
Kapooka experience as they werebreaking up because that's a
long time 12 The 12 week formatwhen you as a choco always a
reservist sorry, when so as achoco and when you got to
Kapooka as changing over tobecome a full time Sahaja was
(05:00):
your experience from being atthe university regimen lot more
different to your expectation?
John Ciampino (05:07):
Oh, listen, because people will call it
nowadays they've got an anchorthey will it's bastardization it
basically new join the regulararmy, but it isn't. It's called
conditioning. Yes. Becauseeverybody's the people that join
the Defence Force realise, atthe end of the day, you're
training for one thing and onething only, and that is to
(05:29):
defend Australian, an Australianterritory against the presses.
So they need you Trank they needto train humans certain aspects,
you need to have a little bit ofresilience about yourself. Don't
take this path, it is what itis. A poor are not going to sign
apologise your alarm, sorry,I'll just waiting to get into
(05:50):
cupboard before I start firingyou again. No,
Andy Fermo (05:54):
that's what I love.
And that's why I asked thatJohn, because I really liked
that. It's the, when we talkabout resilience, which we will
really unpack with your workwith, I've got your six in on
what they're doing. And you asan ambassador for that
organisation, is that wordresilience. And conditioning is
part of that right? As opposedto the bastardization and that
(06:16):
mindset shift straight off thebat. And there is a purpose
behind that. And we'll talk topurpose as well. It can be rough
in and in the 80s as well, youstill would have had of all the
old Vietnam era hard bastardsRenea banquet
Unknown (06:32):
has gotten appreciate when you go into an operational
environment when you can makedifferent than everybody else's
challenges. But now you'vechanged, you become harder, a
lot less softer towards people'sfeelings only ignore because in
the end, you're in a verystressful, demanding environment
that requires split seconddecisions. And is that 90% of
(06:55):
Australian people that may evenlisten to this podcast, will not
realise unless they actually putinto that situation?
Andy Fermo (07:04):
Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing is that, I
think a lot of the time, is,unless you're, if there's that
saying, and if you've beenthere, until you've been in that
situation, it's really hard tobe able to make comment from the
outside people who've actuallybeen in that situation. And our
audience listeners, whetherthey're first responders or
veterans had that sort ofsimilar experience as well of
(07:27):
having been signed up on thedotted line. Now, you mentioned
as well, that when you marchedout into water to get into water
transport, corps transport, wasthat something that you put your
hand up for? And was that the
Unknown (07:39):
home? Definitely. When I joined Kapooka, I didn't
realise he had boats. And whenthey offered the position, I
definitely put my hand up forand fortunately enough, there
was two of us we both got it. Itwas different here. It was an
eye opener. Initially afterrocker panel, initial employment
(07:59):
training straight over to Sydneystraight to 30 private transport
squadron in village and goingdown the village dock and all of
a sudden seeing all these boats,it was just the massive Eye
Opener I'm thinking oh, this isgoing to be fun. You'll be sad
driving these boats around. It'sgonna be great. Yeah, that'd be
far from the truth no far fromthe term that the first week
(08:21):
they handed me a grinder and anail gun and said okay, go start
chipping and painting I'mthinking what the hell is
chipping and painting? And ofcourse they gave me a quick
soldiers by the one I had to doit. Yeah, I went in there and
started doing it. Until I wasuntil the Asics enemy ship cost
came up. So I was basicallytheir labour Gopher, so to
(08:45):
speak, learn a little bit aboutthe trade before I actually
stepped into maritime school tolearn the trade
Andy Fermo (08:51):
proper. Right. So when you did that bit of
labouring beforehand while youwaited for that course to start,
or was that a try service coursewith the maritime courses? It
was at a separate military one,there was
Unknown (09:03):
definitely army run and for Army personnel only. Those
are such things back then as tryservice courses. As you can
appreciate army does things alot differently to what Navy
does. Yeah, as far as operatingwatercraft, and how they run
their business and how they runthe day to day activities. I've
worked on Navy ships, most of mylife as well being water
(09:27):
transport, we had to be taken toin from operational areas and of
course exercises. Yeah,understanding how the Navy works
and operates. You scratch yourhead. Sometimes I'm thinking I'm
so surprised we can actually getthe shit out of poor. I know. It
feels so disjointed. Yeah, whenwe give our Corporal a lot of
(09:51):
responsibility, they die. Theirofficers basically had the
responsibilities and anybodyunder Have a petty officer rank
petty officer just, yeah,labourer do this do that duties
do they don't think they sell,they take a boat out, there'll
be an officer on board tellinghim what to do. With us. It was
(10:14):
completely different. TheCorporal was the man in charge,
he operated the craft and he wasthe one responsible for the crew
and the cargo. And
Andy Fermo (10:22):
a totally, totally different role as well. As you
mentioned before we hit recordof the different types of craft
that you did operate. And I dolove that sort of that dig as
well that intercourse or interservice. rivalry, talk about the
resiliency and conditioning toour Navy audience out there. So
please don't be offended. We'rejust laughing at a joke. And we
(10:45):
try and keep things a littlebit. I know we're talking about
some serious stuff. But it'salso good to have that little
bit of banter. And I thinkthat's part of the the military
way to have that. Exactly.
Unknown (10:56):
Part and parcel of being new in the Defence Force
Navy's always going to dig itarmy being mangos. Navy hates
army army hates Navy and Navyand Army just doesn't get on
well. No big
Andy Fermo (11:10):
shout out to our Air Force. Jon's gonna be getting a
lot of messages. There are a lotof
Unknown (11:19):
spirits. Now you know what it's like everybody knows
where everybody stands in thedefence force. But when it comes
to the crunch, we rely on allelements Army, Navy, and Air
Force. Because without that youcan't do the job. Ground Forces
rely on Air Force to provide aircover Navy rely on Air Force to
(11:42):
support them. Army rely on bothair force and navy wanting to
get them there and to providecover. Yes, it's an intricate
part of the holder ofvegetables. Yeah, that's right.
We banter a lot, right? And wedo we rub people up the wrong
way. But when push comes toshove, we're one team. That's
Andy Fermo (12:02):
right. And and that's what I love to hear about
this sort of thing. You know,like each element, when you sign
on the dotted line has aparticular role to play within
you don't need to be at thepointy end of the stick to be
able to have part in the wholemachine that contributes to that
part of the military as a watertransport II. Was that the first
posting in Sydney or did you doyour trade school and then head
(12:25):
off straightaway? Well, guys,
Unknown (12:26):
straight to our trade goalie in the middle of
Australia into 30 Barbaratransport Squadron which was in
Sydney will inch at Village.
Yeah. And that was the start ofmy water transport. career. And
Andy Fermo (12:41):
then so what did that look like as a young
digger, come coming into theunit? Jays,
Unknown (12:46):
I'll tell you what, there was a lot of things of
course, they're gonna targetyou. There's your young diga on
the yeas and whatnot. But it wasgood. Listen, there was a
hierarchy there. There was abitter bullying and whatnot. But
that was part and parcel aboutchopping yourself up and getting
into the pain of being in watertransport. But just as good
(13:10):
appreciate you're working on aboat II can be at 2030 nautical
miles offshore, travelling upand down the house, there's four
people there on the boat. Andthose four people have to rely
on one another to get theirwatercraft and the crew from one
area to another. There's we canbe extremely jovial. But when
(13:31):
push comes to shove, and we needa job, we do the job well. And
unlike vehicles, you can't pullover if something goes wrong.
You're out there in the middleof the ocean, you the only place
you can go to is to a safeharbour. And that can be 456
hours away. So you have to havea lot of resilience about
yourself. You can't just giveup. You may be you may be tired,
(13:53):
seasick or whatever. You justgot to keep going until you
reach safe harbour.
Andy Fermo (13:58):
Yeah, the resources as well. And I'm sure that back
then you had to be you had tohave those skills to be able to
fault find and rely on eachother's trade skills to get by
and because there's no one toexactly come in to the rescue.
Should you be out at LedisiWell, that's
Unknown (14:17):
right. The you're out in the ocean and you're by
yourself that you're abiding bycivil laws and whatnot being
reopened. But again, out in theocean, when you monitor your
radios, those not only yourcraft, or other crew members get
into a bit of strife, but anycivilian craft out there gets
(14:38):
into a bit of strife. You needto be on your game and you are
required by law to renderassistance and build Now
Andy Fermo (14:47):
it's interesting that you've said that and just
to paint a little bit more aboutlike daily life in as a as a
water transport in the army. Didyou have to was there many
instances where you've you hadto answer those Stress calls
Unknown (15:01):
several. Hola. I'll start with one Paul A who placed
airwing helicopter will sailingout the harbour. And we looked
behind us in the engineer on ourBogle behind us we well look at
that helicopter, it's a bit low.
Oh, he turned around and as weturned around the helicopter hit
the water. And so we which wedone an about face with the LCM.
(15:24):
Both LCM is that we're going inand we rush at best speed to the
crash shot. We secured thehelicopter alongside the
watercraft before it sank. Andwe also had to assist the crew
and one crew member was actuallyinjured. Yeah, I jumped on a
small boat that was out therewent over and literally with
(15:47):
almost straight and theadrenaline was pumping through
my body before the toolbars toget out of the water straight
into the body. And he's strappedto the LCM as was they rebuilt
Polly though the helicopter ittook a couple of years. Yeah, we
were tremendous on our quickaction. So that was pretty good.
(16:07):
And that's where briningdefinitely came in to a picture
Andy Fermo (16:14):
was that one? So what was it like when you said
training came into that picture?
Well, you know, everything
Unknown (16:21):
was just instantaneous.
Yeah, it was literally you justwent in there and you knew what
to do. I only done a quick maeven though the helicopter crew
was I dare say adrenaline wasthen shock hasn't said in
because a message can'thelicopter into the ocean is
just Yeah, it's the furthestthing from your mind. But they
do act. Broadly, well kill theline. So we can vent her
(16:46):
chopping from actually sinking.
And then we will pull the crewmembers out. One of them
screamed out and said he'sinjured. And that's where we
basically look what was aroundus saying as more boat from
India that went over the injuredcrew member pulled him out and
(17:09):
told him he was going to beokay. And of course took them to
the LCM when we're going to showwhere the ambulance was was
Andy Fermo (17:16):
a desirable result.
And when you do that choice oftraining with the choppers and
you have to do that, who attraining think Ah geez, why are
we going back underneath? Why isthis thing rolling. But when you
describe what happened there,out in the ocean, I think that
an airframe is going to sinkpretty bloody quickly once it
fills up with water. So youreally want to get out of that.
It's more than a rock that'stied to your foot. Oh,
Unknown (17:40):
literally pause you had to pull one of the crew members
back in because he was trying toget out of our doctor while the
WISE was high job. So he died.
Yeah. And again, it was the mostback then there was no such
thing for us. I was a diggerback in he was 8889 in the year
when this incident happened. Andyeah, everything was just
(18:04):
instantaneous. She didn't havetime thing. Or it was just going
there to get the job done skillwhat he could get the crew out.
And then from there, think aboutleaking and do after everything
was healed.
Andy Fermo (18:17):
That's a testament to the training there. And then
cutting things coming in youtrain how you train how you're
going to react. And in thatparticular case, that was what
was happening on that daily lifethey came in. And in the 80s.
People mentioned say to me whenwe were talking with different
veterans from that era inparticular, they stated that
there was a peacetime army, butit seemed like there was quite a
(18:39):
lot of stuff happening. John,can you speak to that a little
bit more?
Unknown (18:42):
What's the peacetime army back in the timer I joined
Vietnam war finished in 93. And12 years later I joined so
pretty much it's the same aswhat people are soldiers
nowadays the loss of Bernardswith canister his ankles
literally, yet, we were at mymom's ba the training came from
(19:04):
Vietnam era and style eventhough every word peacetime
army, they didn't look at me asthat. They said, listen, eyes
because you never know what'sgonna happen around the corner,
we need to bind you up at aspecific way. And this is
probably where the hard linecame in. Because in this thing
is a massive thing, because youcan't fold under stress. You've
(19:28):
got to work your way through it.
And this is part and parcel ofhow they conditioned us which
fortunately, doesn't reallyhappen within defence today.
Andy Fermo (19:38):
Yeah, that's a big topic that we can that can be
unpacked there, though aboutthat today. So fast forwarding,
John, you had a massive Korea 31years in the Army and you did
have some deployments as wellspeaking to that time in that
era, there's a little bit morepeacetime but you've already got
Unknown (19:58):
actually it was just for tea mostly, as tables
started, I was been deployed toBowdoin but yes, as peacekeeping
over there and I turned aroundand my boss and said screw
dragon bill, I want to go toteam or and he looked at me
laughed and said, Sorry, mate,you're going to bug and Bill
names already out there. You'reheading up next week. And I
(20:20):
watched my whole unit pack up togo to East Timor. Then the boss
turned around, threw me the caseand said, mate, you're in charge
of the barracks now. You're thecommander in charge of the
Beirut, when they all marchedout straight to our team all
housed for another week beforewe poured our lights to what I
can film, literally my wholeyear shut down. Because we're
(20:43):
working on to operational fundsbeing Bogum Ville and East
Timor. Wow.
Andy Fermo (20:49):
And so that's a go from that time there to then
stand up a lot of those assetsbecause Loganville, East Timor
them got says that there isborder, so all those resources
would have been allocated fromyour unit. Right? Yeah,
literally,
Unknown (21:02):
not only from our unit from water transport through
getting down on as well, becausethey stood up for East Timor, as
well with their two watercraft.
So in essence, pretty much allour watercraft were involved in
one operation or the other. And
Andy Fermo (21:20):
what was it like when that call came in the call
to action? Basically, after allthat Bowgun Ville and then team
was happening? What were whatwere your thoughts? My thoughts?
Unknown (21:31):
We're going to do our job now. Oh, was it saw it? It
was like you've been trainingall these years or the peacetime
army and all of a sudden you'vebeen deployed, and you're
thinking, Oh, your Chinese bandis going to accommodate to this
one period. And that wascertainly overseas, because in
the end, it's not training. Soyou make mistake, it could be
(21:54):
detrimental to our whole on thecrafting crew. Yeah. Download
was, listen, there was an air ofexcitement, anticipation, one,
how everybody was going to reactand whatnot. So I was really
looking forward to it.
Andy Fermo (22:10):
And that was that when you landed in Vogon Ville?
What was that sort ofexpectation versus what was
happening on the ground
Unknown (22:16):
when we landed in Burgerville? Well, of course, we
wore our yellow T shirts, ouryellow hats under our DPC years,
got to well how, where and I wasat Port, their network will
station the watercraft station,and straight into yellow T
shirts and shorts. And yeah,started doing a tasking, which
(22:37):
really hit the ground runningthe army, the crew that we're
replacing, we're going to be foran adult Wait, so we can do a
proper Tai Chi over and we canunderstand the why they'll
operating and from therestraight into it. That was
exciting. It was a reallydifferent I'm thinking as the
new foster Paice. You know, itwas it was quite slow and
(23:00):
deliberate. But it wasenjoyable, nevertheless, because
we're in another country.
Andy Fermo (23:05):
Yep. And peacekeeping operations, there
is a different part to that aswell, it is very important to be
able to do this. Can you justshare with our audience that
Bowgun Ville law, what was themandate there for you guys to be
able to do and you come into theground, hitting the ground
running involved? Okay, so
Unknown (23:22):
pretty much when we hit the ground running a bill was
the only operation that weactually attended where we went
round. So we relied heavily onthe locals to make sure
everything was done right. Inthey knew that well, they're
unarmed for one reason, onereason not only to get both
anvil up and running again andhand it back to the locals. So
(23:45):
as the Brigadier said wouldn'tlisten, were unarmed look after
my pay. And they did they done agreat job. We had a couple of
incidences where a couple oflocals quit drunk and got a hold
of an SLR and started shootingaround our low area, and of
course, the whole point of thelockdown until that was
(24:08):
resolved. But the next day theperson's doing all the firing
and whatnot came over andapologised profusely for his
actions. Yeah, that with bonebone, it's no secret the boating
billion people didn't like PapaNew Guinea at all. Because in
the end, all of the royaltiesand whatnot that's coming out at
(24:31):
Bangalore is getting straight topop when you get in. Yeah, so it
was there was a bit ofconjecture there but working
with the local, absolutelyfantastic, beautiful people.
Unfortunately, the war for themback to the Stone Age, right
from the infrastructure. Theyhad, literally gate when we
arrived there. They had nothing.
The hospital was gone. The powerstation was gone. The courts
(24:54):
were gone. All the machinery wasdestroyed. They were areas well
plus waters knife wise ions justdid fly with Ally doctors, the
they would have shadowed us yetthere will be areas big circles
big red areas needles pumped outcommonly around the mining
arrogance where they will no flyzone is but apart from that was
(25:16):
the first time I actually sawactive Volk greener thing is
pretty low. Yeah. And knowingthat one of the things they tell
you when you're driving up anddown the roads is whatever you
do not run over a beat. And ifyou run over a pit don't stop.
Because not only do you have topay for that pig you've killed
(25:36):
but the offspring that take mypaying for like future royalties
pigs are inboating Ville are a big deal to
them, because I mean, it's partand parcel of their staple diet.
they've acquired valuable so
Andy Fermo (25:52):
called cultural difference there and it's nice
to be able to hear someone whowas deployed to Bergen Ville,
and how that difference wasespecially the anon bit where
you'd actually have to a lot ofit then came down to
communication, and hearts andminds how you would be
operating. Wouldn't it really be
Unknown (26:10):
lovely? It was trusting the locals being in La La Ho. We
did have a hospital there andpatients did arrive there at
night and that the patients hadher wounds, machete wounds and
whatnot. So the surgeonssometimes had to amputate and in
the morning, of course she seeall this black smoke rising and
literally what they do is throwthrough the remains in a one the
(26:36):
buckets for these massive dumptruck. endow just put, have gas
in there and stop burningbecause it was biohazard. They
they disposed of buyer had wehad other things that we had to
be mindful of knowing that therewas chlorine guests in there as
well. So everybody had to carryaround gas masks. And trust me
(26:59):
those gas masks, the gas alarmstend to go off and the most
inopportune time. Yeah. o'clockin the morning.
Andy Fermo (27:07):
And all those things said it was only really it was a
full operation except for theweapons. It's interesting to be
able to hear what it was like itstill had to deal with stuff.
And it's it goes on to thatcultural difference. In Port
Moresby, and I'm thinking aboutboeken Villa and they're sort of
their conflict with the PapuaNew Guineans at the time, their
tribal laws, and it can be apretty violent place when people
(27:30):
say they're still really tribesout there that are not really
conditioned to humans. And thattribal law is much different to
what we see in a westernsociety. It can be pretty rough.
And when you're in some of thosevillages, even in Port Moresby,
it was one of the places therethere's not been many places
that have felt unsafe, right,because I can handle myself and
(27:50):
quite aware, but when you'rethere by yourself, you go, is
this can turn south now. realnasty real quick. And that's
what I'm getting at with whatyou're describing. Like that's
it all came back. It could golike that, as it
Unknown (28:04):
definitely ain't had times it did. Bloody pig John.
Yeah, it was we went out to theoutposts were there see where
and where the other members wereoperating out of here on the
ground, you're seeing nothingbut all these explosive
materials like electronicelectrical detonation caps,
(28:24):
they're just scatteredeverywhere. The explosive
compound all in that two footlong tubes. There's hundreds of
them literally scatteredeverywhere and gone. What the
hell Bear HEY, it's identicalplayed I opened and you speak to
the guys I say how come youhaven't disposed of ladies? I
said all we did we ask thatnobody's promoted disposal yet.
So we went back to low low. Sayyou need EOD out there to mid a
(28:49):
week played out EOD went outthere, collected everything. dug
a big hole in the sand. Blow itall up. Yeah.
Andy Fermo (28:56):
So fast forward in from that experience. John, did
you end up getting a Guernsey toteam or after that we
Unknown (29:02):
did three months after returning back to Australia. Dry
it on the plane. dairies team onnow was three months right after
spending several months over andbagging mill so there was no
reset back then. Because theoperational tempo for us was
extremely high. You're on eitherone operation or in the other
(29:23):
being water transport. We onlyhad to pay a boat that they say
had we spread it out. You had tospread the love our Yeah, that
literally there was a lot of usjust jumping from one operation
to the next from
Andy Fermo (29:36):
going three months.
No decompression we can we couldspeak to that afterwards. And
because you just spoke with thatwith the resources and then that
includes manpower.
Claire Fermo (29:47):
Join us next time for the next episode of the
invisible injuries podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe. Formore great content follow us on
our socials on Instagram. Andyou can also visit Our Website
www dot invisibleinjuries.org.au where you can
access more content Thank youfor listening to invisible
(30:08):
injuries
Welcome to invisible injuries podcast,
aimed at bettering the wellbeing and mental health
veterans, first responders intheir immediate support
experiencing post traumaticstress. By sharing the stories
of the lived experiences of ourpeers, or support staff and the
clinicians, it's our aim to makesure we can have a meaningful
(00:27):
connection with our audience,and give them the ideas for
their own self care plan. If youdo like what you're hearing,
subscribe to the channel andshare it with your friends.
Lastly, these stories may be atrigger for your post traumatic
stress. If your PTSD istriggered, we have links to
(00:48):
support in the description. Orif it's immediate, please call
lifeline on 1311 14. Here's yourhost, Andy fermo.
Andy Fermo (01:03):
G'day everyone, and welcome to the invisible
injuries podcast. In today'sepisode I have I've got your six
Ambassador John, John Pino, whois also a 31 year Army veteran
was with the Royal Australiancorps of transport said, Thank
you so much for joining us onthe podcast today, John,
Unknown (01:25):
thank you for actually inviting me on board. Yes,
Andy Fermo (01:28):
mate. And it's good stuff that you're doing as an
ambassador with I've got yoursix and we'll speak to that and
unpack the amazing work thatyou're doing with them, as well
as what you've been doing withyour business. I can fix that,
and how that's helping veteransas well. And we'll unpack that
in a bit. But before then,right, let's learn a little bit
more about John. So what was it31 years in the military? That's
(01:51):
a bloody long time. So what wasit that drew you to joining the
army in the first place, man,okay,
Unknown (01:57):
pretty much back in the day when I did decide to join
the regular army I was in thearmy was right a man's love the
job. I was with the MelbourneUniversity regiments I was an
Infantry Regiment, and loveddoing what I was doing with them
so much so that I thought thatby love doing the reserves, I'm
gonna love doing the regulararmy. So at the tender age of
(02:21):
just under 19 years of age, Ijoined up which was back in May
85. Wow. Isn't a long time ago.
Yeah,
Andy Fermo (02:29):
no. 85 made it?
Yeah, we do. And so it was to beable to stay. There's so many of
the even like with some of thecontemporary veterans there in
the audience. And 1985 There wasa well before their time. But so
can you paint a bit of a pictureof what when you joined what the
military was like, or even goingthrough? Kapooka? Yeah, for
Unknown (02:51):
sure. When I joined up, it was actually I was recruited
by army recruits the reweddingto the recruiting station, there
was no such thing as civilians.
Back then it was all done by ourDefence personnel. And of
course, your weight through yourbigotry, testing and whatnot all
sudden got the letter in themail probably about a month
later saying yes, you've passedher assessments and you can
(03:14):
marching to Holland Street andfrom there will catch a bus over
to Kapooka. There was none ofthis waiting for 612 a day in
our mouths. Literally, I was onthat bus heading towards
Kapooka. Yeah. And once wearrived, that's when everything
just hit us all at once. It wassprained the hobos jumped on the
(03:35):
bus, told you what to do? How doI line up when basically told
you to shut up? And so they do.
And that was the intro to thedefence poles. So we lined up
there in three rounds. And wetried to march down to the
lines. And literally, it was nonstop for three months. So it was
(03:56):
all to do with conditioning.
Because you know, sinceeverybody's civilian when they
jump off that bus and they wantto get rid of that civilian
aspect of that person's life. SoI literally as you can
appreciate, they'll break youdown right down to where you're
almost broken. And from there,they start building you up the
way they want you to become anact. So literally, they're
(04:19):
building up a soldier. Yeah, Iwas three months who Kapooka
completed all my assessments.
The one thing I didn't want todo is be back squatted. So I
studied and played Dowassessments marched out and I
marched out riding to Australianquarter transport water
transport section.
Andy Fermo (04:39):
Right so with that, I know that you've been to that
Kapooka experience as they werebreaking up because that's a
long time 12 The 12 week formatwhen you as a choco always a
reservist sorry, when so as achoco and when you got to
Kapooka as changing over tobecome a full time Sahaja was
(05:00):
your experience from being atthe university regimen lot more
different to your expectation?
John Ciampino (05:07):
Oh, listen, because people will call it
nowadays they've got an anchorthey will it's bastardization it
basically new join the regulararmy, but it isn't. It's called
conditioning. Yes. Becauseeverybody's the people that join
the Defence Force realise, atthe end of the day, you're
training for one thing and onething only, and that is to
(05:29):
defend Australian, an Australianterritory against the presses.
So they need you Trank they needto train humans certain aspects,
you need to have a little bit ofresilience about yourself. Don't
take this path, it is what itis. A poor are not going to sign
apologise your alarm, sorry,I'll just waiting to get into
(05:50):
cupboard before I start firingyou again. No,
Andy Fermo (05:54):
that's what I love.
And that's why I asked thatJohn, because I really liked
that. It's the, when we talkabout resilience, which we will
really unpack with your workwith, I've got your six in on
what they're doing. And you asan ambassador for that
organisation, is that wordresilience. And conditioning is
part of that right? As opposedto the bastardization and that
(06:16):
mindset shift straight off thebat. And there is a purpose
behind that. And we'll talk topurpose as well. It can be rough
in and in the 80s as well, youstill would have had of all the
old Vietnam era hard bastardsRenea banquet
Unknown (06:32):
has gotten appreciate when you go into an operational
environment when you can makedifferent than everybody else's
challenges. But now you'vechanged, you become harder, a
lot less softer towards people'sfeelings only ignore because in
the end, you're in a verystressful, demanding environment
that requires split seconddecisions. And is that 90% of
(06:55):
Australian people that may evenlisten to this podcast, will not
realise unless they actually putinto that situation?
Andy Fermo (07:04):
Yeah, yeah. And that's the thing is that, I
think a lot of the time, is,unless you're, if there's that
saying, and if you've beenthere, until you've been in that
situation, it's really hard tobe able to make comment from the
outside people who've actuallybeen in that situation. And our
audience listeners, whetherthey're first responders or
veterans had that sort ofsimilar experience as well of
(07:27):
having been signed up on thedotted line. Now, you mentioned
as well, that when you marchedout into water to get into water
transport, corps transport, wasthat something that you put your
hand up for? And was that the
Unknown (07:39):
home? Definitely. When I joined Kapooka, I didn't
realise he had boats. And whenthey offered the position, I
definitely put my hand up forand fortunately enough, there
was two of us we both got it. Itwas different here. It was an
eye opener. Initially afterrocker panel, initial employment
(07:59):
training straight over to Sydneystraight to 30 private transport
squadron in village and goingdown the village dock and all of
a sudden seeing all these boats,it was just the massive Eye
Opener I'm thinking oh, this isgoing to be fun. You'll be sad
driving these boats around. It'sgonna be great. Yeah, that'd be
far from the truth no far fromthe term that the first week
(08:21):
they handed me a grinder and anail gun and said okay, go start
chipping and painting I'mthinking what the hell is
chipping and painting? And ofcourse they gave me a quick
soldiers by the one I had to doit. Yeah, I went in there and
started doing it. Until I wasuntil the Asics enemy ship cost
came up. So I was basicallytheir labour Gopher, so to
(08:45):
speak, learn a little bit aboutthe trade before I actually
stepped into maritime school tolearn the trade
Andy Fermo (08:51):
proper. Right. So when you did that bit of
labouring beforehand while youwaited for that course to start,
or was that a try service coursewith the maritime courses? It
was at a separate military one,there was
Unknown (09:03):
definitely army run and for Army personnel only. Those
are such things back then as tryservice courses. As you can
appreciate army does things alot differently to what Navy
does. Yeah, as far as operatingwatercraft, and how they run
their business and how they runthe day to day activities. I've
worked on Navy ships, most of mylife as well being water
(09:27):
transport, we had to be taken toin from operational areas and of
course exercises. Yeah,understanding how the Navy works
and operates. You scratch yourhead. Sometimes I'm thinking I'm
so surprised we can actually getthe shit out of poor. I know. It
feels so disjointed. Yeah, whenwe give our Corporal a lot of
(09:51):
responsibility, they die. Theirofficers basically had the
responsibilities and anybodyunder Have a petty officer rank
petty officer just, yeah,labourer do this do that duties
do they don't think they sell,they take a boat out, there'll
be an officer on board tellinghim what to do. With us. It was
(10:14):
completely different. TheCorporal was the man in charge,
he operated the craft and he wasthe one responsible for the crew
and the cargo. And
Andy Fermo (10:22):
a totally, totally different role as well. As you
mentioned before we hit recordof the different types of craft
that you did operate. And I dolove that sort of that dig as
well that intercourse or interservice. rivalry, talk about the
resiliency and conditioning toour Navy audience out there. So
please don't be offended. We'rejust laughing at a joke. And we
(10:45):
try and keep things a littlebit. I know we're talking about
some serious stuff. But it'salso good to have that little
bit of banter. And I thinkthat's part of the the military
way to have that. Exactly.
Unknown (10:56):
Part and parcel of being new in the Defence Force
Navy's always going to dig itarmy being mangos. Navy hates
army army hates Navy and Navyand Army just doesn't get on
well. No big
Andy Fermo (11:10):
shout out to our Air Force. Jon's gonna be getting a
lot of messages. There are a lotof
Unknown (11:19):
spirits. Now you know what it's like everybody knows
where everybody stands in thedefence force. But when it comes
to the crunch, we rely on allelements Army, Navy, and Air
Force. Because without that youcan't do the job. Ground Forces
rely on Air Force to provide aircover Navy rely on Air Force to
(11:42):
support them. Army rely on bothair force and navy wanting to
get them there and to providecover. Yes, it's an intricate
part of the holder ofvegetables. Yeah, that's right.
We banter a lot, right? And wedo we rub people up the wrong
way. But when push comes toshove, we're one team. That's
Andy Fermo (12:02):
right. And and that's what I love to hear about
this sort of thing. You know,like each element, when you sign
on the dotted line has aparticular role to play within
you don't need to be at thepointy end of the stick to be
able to have part in the wholemachine that contributes to that
part of the military as a watertransport II. Was that the first
posting in Sydney or did you doyour trade school and then head
(12:25):
off straightaway? Well, guys,
Unknown (12:26):
straight to our trade goalie in the middle of
Australia into 30 Barbaratransport Squadron which was in
Sydney will inch at Village.
Yeah. And that was the start ofmy water transport. career. And
Andy Fermo (12:41):
then so what did that look like as a young
digger, come coming into theunit? Jays,
Unknown (12:46):
I'll tell you what, there was a lot of things of
course, they're gonna targetyou. There's your young diga on
the yeas and whatnot. But it wasgood. Listen, there was a
hierarchy there. There was abitter bullying and whatnot. But
that was part and parcel aboutchopping yourself up and getting
into the pain of being in watertransport. But just as good
(13:10):
appreciate you're working on aboat II can be at 2030 nautical
miles offshore, travelling upand down the house, there's four
people there on the boat. Andthose four people have to rely
on one another to get theirwatercraft and the crew from one
area to another. There's we canbe extremely jovial. But when
(13:31):
push comes to shove, and we needa job, we do the job well. And
unlike vehicles, you can't pullover if something goes wrong.
You're out there in the middleof the ocean, you the only place
you can go to is to a safeharbour. And that can be 456
hours away. So you have to havea lot of resilience about
yourself. You can't just giveup. You may be you may be tired,
(13:53):
seasick or whatever. You justgot to keep going until you
reach safe harbour.
Andy Fermo (13:58):
Yeah, the resources as well. And I'm sure that back
then you had to be you had tohave those skills to be able to
fault find and rely on eachother's trade skills to get by
and because there's no one toexactly come in to the rescue.
Should you be out at LedisiWell, that's
Unknown (14:17):
right. The you're out in the ocean and you're by
yourself that you're abiding bycivil laws and whatnot being
reopened. But again, out in theocean, when you monitor your
radios, those not only yourcraft, or other crew members get
into a bit of strife, but anycivilian craft out there gets
(14:38):
into a bit of strife. You needto be on your game and you are
required by law to renderassistance and build Now
Andy Fermo (14:47):
it's interesting that you've said that and just
to paint a little bit more aboutlike daily life in as a as a
water transport in the army. Didyou have to was there many
instances where you've you hadto answer those Stress calls
Unknown (15:01):
several. Hola. I'll start with one Paul A who placed
airwing helicopter will sailingout the harbour. And we looked
behind us in the engineer on ourBogle behind us we well look at
that helicopter, it's a bit low.
Oh, he turned around and as weturned around the helicopter hit
the water. And so we which wedone an about face with the LCM.
(15:24):
Both LCM is that we're going inand we rush at best speed to the
crash shot. We secured thehelicopter alongside the
watercraft before it sank. Andwe also had to assist the crew
and one crew member was actuallyinjured. Yeah, I jumped on a
small boat that was out therewent over and literally with
(15:47):
almost straight and theadrenaline was pumping through
my body before the toolbars toget out of the water straight
into the body. And he's strappedto the LCM as was they rebuilt
Polly though the helicopter ittook a couple of years. Yeah, we
were tremendous on our quickaction. So that was pretty good.
(16:07):
And that's where briningdefinitely came in to a picture
Andy Fermo (16:14):
was that one? So what was it like when you said
training came into that picture?
Well, you know, everything
Unknown (16:21):
was just instantaneous.
Yeah, it was literally you justwent in there and you knew what
to do. I only done a quick maeven though the helicopter crew
was I dare say adrenaline wasthen shock hasn't said in
because a message can'thelicopter into the ocean is
just Yeah, it's the furthestthing from your mind. But they
do act. Broadly, well kill theline. So we can vent her
(16:46):
chopping from actually sinking.
And then we will pull the crewmembers out. One of them
screamed out and said he'sinjured. And that's where we
basically look what was aroundus saying as more boat from
India that went over the injuredcrew member pulled him out and
(17:09):
told him he was going to beokay. And of course took them to
the LCM when we're going to showwhere the ambulance was was
Andy Fermo (17:16):
a desirable result.
And when you do that choice oftraining with the choppers and
you have to do that, who attraining think Ah geez, why are
we going back underneath? Why isthis thing rolling. But when you
describe what happened there,out in the ocean, I think that
an airframe is going to sinkpretty bloody quickly once it
fills up with water. So youreally want to get out of that.
It's more than a rock that'stied to your foot. Oh,
Unknown (17:40):
literally pause you had to pull one of the crew members
back in because he was trying toget out of our doctor while the
WISE was high job. So he died.
Yeah. And again, it was the mostback then there was no such
thing for us. I was a diggerback in he was 8889 in the year
when this incident happened. Andyeah, everything was just
(18:04):
instantaneous. She didn't havetime thing. Or it was just going
there to get the job done skillwhat he could get the crew out.
And then from there, think aboutleaking and do after everything
was healed.
Andy Fermo (18:17):
That's a testament to the training there. And then
cutting things coming in youtrain how you train how you're
going to react. And in thatparticular case, that was what
was happening on that daily lifethey came in. And in the 80s.
People mentioned say to me whenwe were talking with different
veterans from that era inparticular, they stated that
there was a peacetime army, butit seemed like there was quite a
(18:39):
lot of stuff happening. John,can you speak to that a little
bit more?
Unknown (18:42):
What's the peacetime army back in the timer I joined
Vietnam war finished in 93. And12 years later I joined so
pretty much it's the same aswhat people are soldiers
nowadays the loss of Bernardswith canister his ankles
literally, yet, we were at mymom's ba the training came from
(19:04):
Vietnam era and style eventhough every word peacetime
army, they didn't look at me asthat. They said, listen, eyes
because you never know what'sgonna happen around the corner,
we need to bind you up at aspecific way. And this is
probably where the hard linecame in. Because in this thing
is a massive thing, because youcan't fold under stress. You've
(19:28):
got to work your way through it.
And this is part and parcel ofhow they conditioned us which
fortunately, doesn't reallyhappen within defence today.
Andy Fermo (19:38):
Yeah, that's a big topic that we can that can be
unpacked there, though aboutthat today. So fast forwarding,
John, you had a massive Korea 31years in the Army and you did
have some deployments as wellspeaking to that time in that
era, there's a little bit morepeacetime but you've already got
Unknown (19:58):
actually it was just for tea mostly, as tables
started, I was been deployed toBowdoin but yes, as peacekeeping
over there and I turned aroundand my boss and said screw
dragon bill, I want to go toteam or and he looked at me
laughed and said, Sorry, mate,you're going to bug and Bill
names already out there. You'reheading up next week. And I
(20:20):
watched my whole unit pack up togo to East Timor. Then the boss
turned around, threw me the caseand said, mate, you're in charge
of the barracks now. You're thecommander in charge of the
Beirut, when they all marchedout straight to our team all
housed for another week beforewe poured our lights to what I
can film, literally my wholeyear shut down. Because we're
(20:43):
working on to operational fundsbeing Bogum Ville and East
Timor. Wow.
Andy Fermo (20:49):
And so that's a go from that time there to then
stand up a lot of those assetsbecause Loganville, East Timor
them got says that there isborder, so all those resources
would have been allocated fromyour unit. Right? Yeah,
literally,
Unknown (21:02):
not only from our unit from water transport through
getting down on as well, becausethey stood up for East Timor, as
well with their two watercraft.
So in essence, pretty much allour watercraft were involved in
one operation or the other. And
Andy Fermo (21:20):
what was it like when that call came in the call
to action? Basically, after allthat Bowgun Ville and then team
was happening? What were whatwere your thoughts? My thoughts?
Unknown (21:31):
We're going to do our job now. Oh, was it saw it? It
was like you've been trainingall these years or the peacetime
army and all of a sudden you'vebeen deployed, and you're
thinking, Oh, your Chinese bandis going to accommodate to this
one period. And that wascertainly overseas, because in
the end, it's not training. Soyou make mistake, it could be
(21:54):
detrimental to our whole on thecrafting crew. Yeah. Download
was, listen, there was an air ofexcitement, anticipation, one,
how everybody was going to reactand whatnot. So I was really
looking forward to it.
Andy Fermo (22:10):
And that was that when you landed in Vogon Ville?
What was that sort ofexpectation versus what was
happening on the ground
Unknown (22:16):
when we landed in Burgerville? Well, of course, we
wore our yellow T shirts, ouryellow hats under our DPC years,
got to well how, where and I wasat Port, their network will
station the watercraft station,and straight into yellow T
shirts and shorts. And yeah,started doing a tasking, which
(22:37):
really hit the ground runningthe army, the crew that we're
replacing, we're going to be foran adult Wait, so we can do a
proper Tai Chi over and we canunderstand the why they'll
operating and from therestraight into it. That was
exciting. It was a reallydifferent I'm thinking as the
new foster Paice. You know, itwas it was quite slow and
(23:00):
deliberate. But it wasenjoyable, nevertheless, because
we're in another country.
Andy Fermo (23:05):
Yep. And peacekeeping operations, there
is a different part to that aswell, it is very important to be
able to do this. Can you justshare with our audience that
Bowgun Ville law, what was themandate there for you guys to be
able to do and you come into theground, hitting the ground
running involved? Okay, so
Unknown (23:22):
pretty much when we hit the ground running a bill was
the only operation that weactually attended where we went
round. So we relied heavily onthe locals to make sure
everything was done right. Inthey knew that well, they're
unarmed for one reason, onereason not only to get both
anvil up and running again andhand it back to the locals. So
(23:45):
as the Brigadier said wouldn'tlisten, were unarmed look after
my pay. And they did they done agreat job. We had a couple of
incidences where a couple oflocals quit drunk and got a hold
of an SLR and started shootingaround our low area, and of
course, the whole point of thelockdown until that was
(24:08):
resolved. But the next day theperson's doing all the firing
and whatnot came over andapologised profusely for his
actions. Yeah, that with bonebone, it's no secret the boating
billion people didn't like PapaNew Guinea at all. Because in
the end, all of the royaltiesand whatnot that's coming out at
(24:31):
Bangalore is getting straight topop when you get in. Yeah, so it
was there was a bit ofconjecture there but working
with the local, absolutelyfantastic, beautiful people.
Unfortunately, the war for themback to the Stone Age, right
from the infrastructure. Theyhad, literally gate when we
arrived there. They had nothing.
The hospital was gone. The powerstation was gone. The courts
(24:54):
were gone. All the machinery wasdestroyed. They were areas well
plus waters knife wise ions justdid fly with Ally doctors, the
they would have shadowed us yetthere will be areas big circles
big red areas needles pumped outcommonly around the mining
arrogance where they will no flyzone is but apart from that was
(25:16):
the first time I actually sawactive Volk greener thing is
pretty low. Yeah. And knowingthat one of the things they tell
you when you're driving up anddown the roads is whatever you
do not run over a beat. And ifyou run over a pit don't stop.
Because not only do you have topay for that pig you've killed
(25:36):
but the offspring that take mypaying for like future royalties
pigs are inboating Ville are a big deal to
them, because I mean, it's partand parcel of their staple diet.
they've acquired valuable so
Andy Fermo (25:52):
called cultural difference there and it's nice
to be able to hear someone whowas deployed to Bergen Ville,
and how that difference wasespecially the anon bit where
you'd actually have to a lot ofit then came down to
communication, and hearts andminds how you would be
operating. Wouldn't it really be
Unknown (26:10):
lovely? It was trusting the locals being in La La Ho. We
did have a hospital there andpatients did arrive there at
night and that the patients hadher wounds, machete wounds and
whatnot. So the surgeonssometimes had to amputate and in
the morning, of course she seeall this black smoke rising and
literally what they do is throwthrough the remains in a one the
(26:36):
buckets for these massive dumptruck. endow just put, have gas
in there and stop burningbecause it was biohazard. They
they disposed of buyer had wehad other things that we had to
be mindful of knowing that therewas chlorine guests in there as
well. So everybody had to carryaround gas masks. And trust me
(26:59):
those gas masks, the gas alarmstend to go off and the most
inopportune time. Yeah. o'clockin the morning.
Andy Fermo (27:07):
And all those things said it was only really it was a
full operation except for theweapons. It's interesting to be
able to hear what it was like itstill had to deal with stuff.
And it's it goes on to thatcultural difference. In Port
Moresby, and I'm thinking aboutboeken Villa and they're sort of
their conflict with the PapuaNew Guineans at the time, their
tribal laws, and it can be apretty violent place when people
(27:30):
say they're still really tribesout there that are not really
conditioned to humans. And thattribal law is much different to
what we see in a westernsociety. It can be pretty rough.
And when you're in some of thosevillages, even in Port Moresby,
it was one of the places therethere's not been many places
that have felt unsafe, right,because I can handle myself and
(27:50):
quite aware, but when you'rethere by yourself, you go, is
this can turn south now. realnasty real quick. And that's
what I'm getting at with whatyou're describing. Like that's
it all came back. It could golike that, as it
Unknown (28:04):
definitely ain't had times it did. Bloody pig John.
Yeah, it was we went out to theoutposts were there see where
and where the other members wereoperating out of here on the
ground, you're seeing nothingbut all these explosive
materials like electronicelectrical detonation caps,
(28:24):
they're just scatteredeverywhere. The explosive
compound all in that two footlong tubes. There's hundreds of
them literally scatteredeverywhere and gone. What the
hell Bear HEY, it's identicalplayed I opened and you speak to
the guys I say how come youhaven't disposed of ladies? I
said all we did we ask thatnobody's promoted disposal yet.
So we went back to low low. Sayyou need EOD out there to mid a
(28:49):
week played out EOD went outthere, collected everything. dug
a big hole in the sand. Blow itall up. Yeah.
Andy Fermo (28:56):
So fast forward in from that experience. John, did
you end up getting a Guernsey toteam or after that we
Unknown (29:02):
did three months after returning back to Australia. Dry
it on the plane. dairies team onnow was three months right after
spending several months over andbagging mill so there was no
reset back then. Because theoperational tempo for us was
extremely high. You're on eitherone operation or in the other
(29:23):
being water transport. We onlyhad to pay a boat that they say
had we spread it out. You had tospread the love our Yeah, that
literally there was a lot of usjust jumping from one operation
to the next from
Andy Fermo (29:36):
going three months.
No decompression we can we couldspeak to that afterwards. And
because you just spoke with thatwith the resources and then that
includes manpower.
Claire Fermo (29:47):
Join us next time for the next episode of the
invisible injuries podcast.
Don't forget to subscribe. Formore great content follow us on
our socials on Instagram. Andyou can also visit Our Website
www dot invisibleinjuries.org.au where you can
access more content Thank youfor listening to invisible
(30:08):
injuries
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