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Life On The Battlefield – Q&A With a Former Solider

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Lane now lives a quiet life with his family in Geraldton, WA – Image provided by Mitchell Lane

In July 2005, Mitchell Lane joined the Australian Army. At the age of 17, he started his life changing journey at Kapooka for recruit training which he continued at the School of Infantry in Singleton to learn his trade as a rifleman. After months of intense training, he was then posted to 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR). At the age of 21, Lane had completed two tours of Afghanistan in combat roles.

Five years have passed since he has left the Army. Now he is living a quiet life in Geraldton, WA with his family. I asked Lane about his time in the Army and how he transitioned back into civilian life.

Q: What were you thinking when one the day you marched into Kapooka?

A: I wasn’t really thinking much of anything when I got to Kapooka, I was busy taking everything in. It wasn’t until we got to our barracks lines when they said that if you don’t want to be here, step forward and we will send you home, and people actually did that. I stated to think, I belong here. But by that stage I was committed and didn’t want to be one of the people that pulled out.

Q: Did your perception of what to expect from military life change from when you marched into Kapooka to when you marched out of Singleton?

A: The change from Kapooka wasn’t much of a change. You still got treated like a child, except that this time you can get pissed at the boozer and get some weekends off to go either to the local town or Newcastle. It wasn’t until you start getting into the more advanced infantry training that you start to realise that there is a much larger jump is standards in intensity.

Q: You were quite young when you were first deployed to Afghanistan, what was expectation and mentality towards your first trip?

A: My first tour of Afghanistan I was only 19 but not much more than a month or two. At this stage I was cocky, gobby and thought I was good. Now that I look back I was just a boy among men. Shit, I had lot to learn. Learning the hard way was something that was going to come to me whether I liked it or not.

Q: How did your mindset change in the lead up to your second deployment?

A: For my second deployment, I was a different man, I knew what to expect, what was likely to happen and how to act during those times. It didn’t change what I was going to expect. It was the same country, same theatre, same locals and same enemy. Your role may change, mine did; I was a mortar operator/combat first aider.

Q: Do you feel like the training adequately prepared you for the deployment?

A: The training always prepares you. It gives you a basic drill to use during the initial action but what you do next only comes from experience that you already have or from the blokes beside you.

Q: What was the biggest difference for you between battalion life and civilian life?

A: There is no comparison from battalion life and civilian life. When you’re in the battalion, you are the battalion. Yes, you knock off work but you never really knock off work, there is always a chance of the phone ringing and being called back in. Whether it’s to get ready to deploy to areas of instability like Solomon Islands or Fiji, you can get to work to get ready to go, but never do. Then go home 12 hours later at One o’clock in the morning. Or you may get called to assist with the clean-up, the day after cyclone Yasi had just gone through and it’s still blowing winds of over 100 kilometers an hour and pissing down with rain.

Q: What were some of the strategies that you adopted to make the transition into civilian life easier?

A: For me, I had no strategies. When I left the Army, I was in a very unstable mental state and on some very hard medications and self-medicate with alcohol pass out and fall asleep.

Q: Reflecting back on your time in the Army, do you feel like they prepared you for civilian life?

A: I never gave them a chance to teach me how to adapt to civilian life. That was something I was going to have to learn by myself. But even five years later, I still don’t know how to. You never really become a civilian; you become a veteran, someone who has a very different view on the world. You’re blunt, say things how they are, no matter how harsh. Your vocabulary consists mainly of “fuck”, “cunt”, and “shit”. You may have seen the very worst of the world and humanity where people have less than nothing. Then you come back to a world where everything is at your finger-tips and you see people still whining about having nothing.

Q: What advice would you give to a young digger coming through recruit training?

A: For the younger people thinking about joining the military, I’d say this: It’s a life like no other. You will be challenged, pushed and broken. But you will be a better person, you will meet better people and by the end of it, you will have learnt things about yourself you never knew. You will meet mates for life; see and do things people will only dream of. By the time I was 25, I had seen and done more things than people twice my age. Don’t be like me. I was a smart arse and didn’t help. Keep your head down unless in the classroom. Listen, learn and enjoy a life that you will one day wish you could go back to on a daily basis.

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