One year after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, those closest to the conflict reflect on the costs and rewards of Australia’s 20-year involvement in the war. Watch Insight's episode
I knew Afghanistan was a dangerous place.
By the time I deployed in January 2010, Australia had lost 10 soldiers there. One of them, Sergeant Matthew Locke, I knew from a course I had done with him in 2005.
He was arguably one of the most professional soldiers I had ever met. A Special Air Service (SASR) Sergeant, he seemed invincible. For him to be killed seemed impossible, and made the country seem all the more dangerous.
I deployed to Afghanistan on Australia Day in 2010 and was based at a patrol base in the Baluchi valley in Oruzgan Province. My team’s role was to mentor elements of the Afghanistan National Army (ANA). As a Captain, I was tasked to mentor a fellow Captain of the ANA who was in charge of about 80 ANA soldiers. Their numbers varied. I had 18 Australians under my command.
Julian pictured during his time in Afghanistan.
He was revered amongst the locals in the valley and our tour got off to a normal start.
It was February, still winter.
The Taliban were to be more active in the summer months of June until August - 'fighting season.'
We had a few occasions where we were involved in fighting with the enemy, however it was sporadic. That all changed in June.
In early June, our Battalion lost two engineers in the Mirabad Valley. The first casualties for our unit struck hard and made us all realise that the danger was real and deadly.
Later that month, a helicopter crash claimed the lives of three Commandos, which was another huge shock for the special forces and the Australian Defence Force. We continued our work mentoring the ANA elements and working with the local community, developing relationships and assisting their community through small building projects to enhance their quality of life.
War really hit home in early July when our company lost Private Nathan Bewes. He was operating only 10 or so kilometres north of us in a neighbouring area of operations. He was well known to all of us, and was the first casualty from our company. It rocked us all to the core. The job went on.
We started being rocketed. This was confronting as there was very little warning, nor protection, for us. Two rockets landed either of the base. In order to address this issue, I had planned an operation to disrupt the area from which the rockets were being fired from.
This area is known as the ‘point of origin’. My boss had given me significant assets to achieve this, including armoured vehicles and a platoon (30 men) to support the clearance of the area. The operation was planned for the 20th August and would occur all day.
When I look back at my time there I think of Afghanistan as a beautiful country, with beautiful people, and sadly too many of them only know about war.
We left at approximately 6am. The patrol begin without incident. We had two overwatch positions [soldiers looking out for us] on the other side of the river which were providing situational awareness as we cleared north.
As we approached the area where we would begin the clearance, there was a massive explosive in the overwatch area. I immediately thought it had been rocketed. The radio transmissions revealed that two soldiers had been killed by an improvised explosive device (IED). My blood ran cold. Those soldiers were under my command. I had cited the position, which had been cleared by engineers. Everything had been done according to the orders which had taken weeks to develop, refine, and be approved.
The rest of the day posed a lot of challenges. We got back to the patrol base about 8pm. It had been a very long day for everyone.
We reset the next day and a convoy of the attached soldiers were travelling to Tarin Kowt for the ramp ceremony for the two soldiers who had been killed. A ramp ceremony sees the coffins, draped in the Australian National Flag, marched onto the RAAF aircraft and flown out of the country where they can be buried in Australian soil. En route, one of the Bushmaster vehicles struck an IED. A helicopter was despatched to evacuate the casualty who had been wounded by the blast. That was another long day and the convoy reached Tarin Kowt by nightfall.
We conducted a small ceremony at the patrol base to coincide with the Tarin Kowt ceremony. Before it started, there had been a communications lockdown. This was never for a good reason.
We conducted the ceremony and waited for the plane to fly up the Baluchi valley towards us. Then they flew over us and deployed flares as a gesture of farewell to the country that had claimed so many of the best of us.
After the ceremony I returned to the command post. A phone call came through. It was the operations officer of my company. He informed me that there had been a fatality in the Derapet valley. That explained the communications lockdown. When he said the name of the soldier that had been killed, I burst into tears. It was involuntary. Jared MacKinney had been one of my soldiers several years earlier and I knew him well. I ventured outside to tell the rest of the team the terrible news. From the emotion on my face they could clearly tell it wasn’t good news.
The mission went on. Thankfully there were no more casualties.
When I look back at my time there I think of Afghanistan as a beautiful country, with beautiful people, and sadly too many of them only know about war. They were used to our presence and the children were always happy to see us.
Seeing the scenes of desperation in August last year were a stark contrast to the much quieter life they were living when I was there. I think our presence had that effect. It was a presence I knew was never going to be forever though.
I hope the country finds peace, having seen what was possible without the Taliban.
