6 March 1968
I have passed the Medical/Physical/Psychological exams and am accepted into the Army. At 25 years of age, with an apprenticeship cut short by Victorian Railway cutbacks, I am an indigent labourer, smoker and drinker and arrive in Kapooka on a busload of recruits.

In my platoon of conscripts and others around 20 years of age, there are three old men. Me 25, Noel Bye 32 and another bloke 26. I am competitive in upper body strength, but for running my legs are like overcooked spaghetti. To run a mile I need a cut lunch.

Toward the end of Recruit Training we must decide what Corps to join. My mate Noel (32) is an ex-Tasmanian Ambulance Officer and he is joining RAAMC. I ask him what they do and if they have to run anywhere as I have a phobia of running.

Noel said that a Medic would do Corps training at the School of Health at Healesville, then be assigned to a medical unit, maybe a Hospital or Field Ambulance." Maybe you will be an Orderly and mop floors or change bed pans, at the worst you may end up doing gardening in the Hospital grounds." Do they do any running ? "No". Good, I want to be a Medic.

So we pass out of Kapooka and go to the School of Health. We are assigned to a big long tent and shown a low level water tank full of ice to be used in case of fire. There are S.A.S. blokes harboured in one of the tents and they exercise by running over the tent tops. But otherwise uneventful.

Then Noel and I are selected for a course uptown in the main school buildings. We are housed in wooden quarters and attend classes where Privates are in the minority. Mainly Corporals and three Nurses doing a refresher course. Noel's prior medical knowledge has him in his element, but for me to name 216 bones of the body, I can only come up with 5. 2 arms, 2 legs and a spine. So every night (God bless the possum) Noel tutored me so I could keep up with the class. AND we hadn't had to run anywhere. It must have been a strain on Noel's patience but I was improving.

I remember the Matron handing out an examination form to be filled in. One question was "What is required on a Doctors Examination Tray"? Well now, a thermometer in a glass of Hibitane, a bowl of gauze swabs, kidney dish, ophthalmoscope, tongue depressors, ligature, nasal speculum, torch etc. On the Monday morning the Matron kindly appeared with the results. "Most of the class did well, however there is obviously a couple of topics we should re-examine in further lessons. For instance, Private Tippett, on a Doctors Examination Tray we have an Mercurial Sphygmomanometer, not 'the thing in the black box'!"

However I scraped through with Noel's help and we were assigned to our new Units. Noel and I were sent to 2RAR at Ennogera. As they hadn't returned from war service leave from Vietnam we were attached to 1 Fld.Arty for a while to learn the ropes. Then back to clean up the R.A.P. at 2RAR as they re-formed. But still no running. God bless little Noel.

When the 2RAR R.A.P. was opened for business we were honored with the presence of LTCOL Peter Grant as RMO (DDMS). Boy, what a learning curve. No needles in oranges for practice, no heating pies in the autoclave or keeping cans of coke in the fridge with Tet-Tox and Penicillin. Doctor Grant made us accompany the patient into the office and listen to the question and answer routine, then asked us to form a diagnosis. Then tell us where we went wrong. Or point out things we should have taken into account etc. A wonderful man and one of Nature’s gentlemen.

Once fully reformed 2RAR was posted to Townsville at the now infamous Lavarack Barracks, (by a few imbeciles who made it notorious for anybody who served there).  People in civvy street don't realise that Lavarack Barracks is the headquarters of many units including Infantry, Field Ambulance, RAASC, RAEME and all the rest, but I digress.  So we Medic's are each assigned a Company of Infantry to look after. I was assigned "A Coy.2RAR" and proud of it. But as part of the acclimatisation program we were sent on a nine mile run. Where are you now Noel Bye you mongrel ?

I have abridged this version and take all responsibility for changes to dates and times. All names are fictitious except mine, LTCOLGrant and Noel Bye's.