The Duke of Gloucester Cup – or DOG Cup – is a prestigious event for infantry battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR).
Since its inception during the occupation of Japan in 1947, the DOG Cup has challenged its competitors in a series of activities that test each solder’s skills and technique in the art of soldiering.

Pics Corporal Chris Moore

In early August the Australian Defence Force was called upon to deal with what was to prove to be the fi rst in a new wave of assistance missions across the region – missions for which few if any organisations are better prepared or more capable of handling.

Words and pics ADF

Exercise Talisman Saber 2009, conducted from 6 to 25 July, was the third in a series of biennial combined-training activities designed to practice Australian and US forces in planning and conducting Combined Task Force operations.It was a major undertaking, bringing together air, land and sea assets and more than 20,000 participants across an exercise area that stretched across most of Australia’s north – and, in fact, much further afield, with much of the action controlled, coordinated and overseen by the 613th Air and Space Operations Center at Hickham Air Force Base, Hawaii.

Words and pics ADF

Months of intense and carefully applied Afghan National Security Force (ANSF) and Australian Special Forces pressure on insurgent sanctuary areas in Oruzgan Province have helped pave the way for a permanent Coalition and ANSF presence in the province’s Mirabad region. A series of operations in the area since July have seen the Australian Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) and ANSF
steadily advance a counterinsurgency strategy, the overriding objective of which has been to gain and maintain the support of the local population by demonstrating ANSF and coalition ability to protect them, and by offering them an achievable, positive alternative to continued Taliban domination.

Words and pics ADF

The last Australian servicemen missing from the Vietnam War were welcomed home on 31 August at RAAF Base Richmond closing an important chapter in Australian military history. The remains of Flying Offi cer Michael Herbert and Pilot Offi cer Robert Carver, who were recorded as missing in action after they failed to return from a routine bombing mission on 3 November 1970, were recovered from thick jungle following an archaeological dig in July at the site that had been found earlier this year.

Pics ADF

Three Australian high-school teams travelled to London in September to compete in the F1 in Schools World Championships – and almost scooped the pool.
Redline Racing from Trinity Christian School, ACT; AC Racing representing Noosa District State High School, Queensland, in collaboration with Miles MacDonell Collegiate, Manitoba, Canada; and, Bio-Hazard from Menai High School, NSW took out second, third and fourth places overall, as well as wins in several categories.

Words Brian Hartigan
Pics Brian Hartigan and F1 in Schools

One of the Royal Australian Air Force’s largest aircraft carried the Air Force recruiting and careers message to Indigenous and other
Australians across Arnhem Land in August and September, stopping at schools in Nhulunbuy, Yirrkala and Gapuwiyak among other places. In fact, when word got out about the strange and exciting visitor, people drove for hours across dusty, rutted roads, from all across the region to get a closer look at the monster.

Words and Pics Leading Arcraftman Aaron Curran

Starting the day with a ration pack for breakfast and donning camouflage gear before diving into the 'bear pit', the preface to the punishing scramble over, around and under obstacles in a bayonet course that is routine training for reservist infantry is not the usual way the 47 employers on Wagga Wagga’s Exercise Executive Stretch (EES) spend their weekends. But, getting down and dirty with a weapon at their shoulders gave these managers, solicitors, journalists and others from a variety of industries a first-hand look at the rigours of Defence Force training.

Pics Steven Spinks and Leah llyod Photography

Puffing to the summit of a dormant 300,000-year-old volcano, Kiwi Mac discovers the Hawaiian Island of O’ahu has far more to offer military history buffs than just the standard package deals that include visiting the Arizona Memorial and USS Missouri – but these
too are well worth a visit.

Words Kiwi Mac
Pics Kiwi Mac and 'Scotty Dog'

In September, 65 New Zealand troops, mainly from Burnham Military Camp’s 2/1 Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, took part in Exercise Suman Warrior, a week-long command-post exercise in Malaysia, working alongside four of our closest neighbours and partners, to overcome a simulated threat. Commanding officer 2/1RNZIR Lieutenant Colonel Hugh McAslan explained that Exercise Suman Warrior ’09 involved 500 troops from the Five Power Defence Agreement (FPDA) nations, focusing on developing interoperability among the participating armies.

Words Jane Mortlock
Pics NZDF

Lying in a hospital bed, facing a long and painful recuperation after an horrific car crash, former 6RAR company commander and ex-regular Lieutenant Colonel Luke Carroll struck up what was to prove a lasting friendship with a hospital chaplain. It was not a friendship based on religion or ministering, but, as it turned out, one rooted in music. The chaplain suggested it was all well and good to rest up, healing bones and body, but the mind and the person needed attention too.
“What hobbies or interests do you have? What do you do that is creative?” the chaplain asked.
“Nothing – anymore,” came a tentative reply. “But, I used to play guitar.”

Words and pics Brian Hartigan

Townsville was the latest regional centre to experience the high octane sights and sounds of a now-annual Royal Australian Air Force air show – and what a show it was!
Actually, the RAAF can’t take all the credit. The actual flying display was organised as the city’s celebration of the 10th anniversary of major rejuvenation works on The Strand – the city’s waterfront promenade – and the site of the spectacular air display. Headlining the air show was the US Air Force’s Thunderbirds aerobatics demonstration team with its six F-16 Fighting Falcons.

Words and pics Brian Hartigan

I guess you could say that in the early ’90s many guys in the ADF – and I’d wager even a few Cav boys – found the humble M113 APC a tad lame and uninspiring. If you found an old Jane's Defence book dated from the late ’80s or early ’90s you’d see any number of first- (and in the case of the South African’s) second-generation mine-resistant vehicles bristling with a plethora of large-calibre weapons. Jealousies aside though, the fact remained that in 1993 the M113 was still the serving battle wagon of the then still tight-fi sted ADF and would continue to serve us well for many years to come......

Words AJ Shinner
Pics Supplied by AJ Shinner, and ADF

CADET CORNER

• Cadets on the Mountain by Cadet Corporal Hayden Swift 310th ACU Dandenong
• Training Ship Tyalgum celebrates 50 years by Lieutenant Commander Christine Sheppard ANC
• New Darwin recruits march out
• NEWS
  • Info-tech upgrade
  • New uniform

Plus...

• Lance Corporal Mason Edwards RIP
• C-17 sets record in Afghanistan
• Sabre flies again
• Postcards Home to New South Wales
• Competition Giveaways
  • $1600-worth of tactical sunglasses
  • 4 copies of Operation Flashpoint

Plus our regular columns;

• The Big Picture - Aussies fire Abrams in America
  
• Heads up - latest snippets from Australia, New Zealand and around the World
• Military Fitness by Don Stevenson
• Military Self Defence by Major Travis Faure
• Just Soldiers by WO1 Darryl Kelly
• Games reviews by Sapper Gameboy
• The Transport Yard with Heater
• The Gear Insider
• The Job's Market" with Jonathan Ryan