19/09/2026
20 years ago today — 20 September 2006.
Twenty years ago today, we left Australia from Darwin and began the journey to Afghanistan as part of Reconstruction Task Force One (RTF-1).
I was part of a small group from 6RAR, heading over as part of what would become the first Australian non-Special Forces-led task force deployed into Afghanistan during the Global War on Terror.
This photo was taken of me in Kuwait, reading Stars and Stripes, just a few days before we flew into Tarin Kot, Afghanistan. Looking at it now, it's hard to comprehend that two decades have passed.
Throughout my deployments I kept a daily diary. I wrote down what we were doing, what was happening around us and probably plenty of things that only made sense to a soldier at the time. I haven't really sat down and read those diaries since.
Back then I set myself a goal: 20 years from now, I'll sit down and type them all up.
Well… 20 years is here.
So today I'm going to start.
Hopefully I can still decipher my handwriting and remember what half the Army lingo and abbreviations meant!
I know it won't always be easy to read. Some of the people whose names will appear throughout those pages are no longer with us. Some were lost on later deployments, some through illness, and others through tragic circumstances after their time in Defence.
Reading those names and reliving some of those days after 20 years will undoubtedly bring back a lot of memories and emotions — good times, difficult times, ridiculous moments, and people I was fortunate enough to serve alongside.
We were younger men heading into something none of us could completely understand at the time. Twenty years later, I think those diaries will mean something very different to me.
20 September 2006 – 20 September 2026.
Twenty years on. Time to open the first diary. 🇦🇺
RTF-1 | 6RAR | Afghanistan 2006–07
