CONTACT magazine issue #36

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Issue 36
December 2012

In Newsagents Australia wide from 30 November 2012 until 1 March 2013

Or, buy the hard copy version of this issue now and have it mailed directly to your home or office

Click on the images below to read the first 2 pages of each story

	I visited Australian troops in the Middle East Area of Operations in September. While I anticipated patrols outside the wire with our soldiers, circumstances prevented it (more on that in my editorial). Instead, what I did was talk to as many people as I could to get a better background understanding of the day-to-day life of our soldiers, especially in Afghanistan. What follows are some of those chats, offering different threads around the same conversation. Words and pics Brian Hartigan

	AUSSIE SUPERPOWER - Part 2. Last issue, I left off telling you how HMAS Melbourne’s crew is an almost addictively fit bunch of Aussies – plus three Kiwi ring-ins. All hours of the day or night there’s someone somewhere doing PT. The small gym is, apparently, fully booked 24/7 – so other popular spots include the flight deck, or the focsle (the open deck up front with the hints of interesting weaponry), or a range of other nooks and crannies, with rowing machines, cycle machines, treadmills, weights, mats, chin-up bars, gymnastic rings and a host of other fitness apparatus salted away (though more often than not, pulled out and in use) in strange and surprising places all over the ship.... Words and pics Brian Hartigan

	Fresh from operations in Afghanistan, a section from the 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR), came out on top in the Duke of Gloucester Cup at Singleton Military Area earlier this year - and, in October, flew to Wales to take part in Exercise Cambrian Patrol, the premier infantry-patrolling event of the British Army, and came away with a highly sought-after silver medal after completing the gruelling 60km course in less than 48 hours. Pics ADF

	For the most conspicuous acts of gallantry and extreme devotion to duty in action in circumstances of great peril on 24 August 2010 at Derapet, Uruzgan province, Afghanistan, as part of Mentoring Task Force One, Corporal Daniel Keighran is awarded the Victoria Cross - a first for the Royal Australian Regiment. Words and pics ADF

	It is a well-established adage that conflict, specifically armed conflict, brings out the best and worst in man. Arguably many of the world’s most striking and emotive images have been captured on the field of battle. These images would not exist in our collective psyche without placing someone, often in harm’s way, behind a lens – and that’s where Australia’s 1st Joint Public Affairs Unit (1JPAU) enters the frame. Words Captain Chris Rickey Pics 1JPAU

	WEAPONS OF THE ADF: The third instalment in our popular new series of articles cataloguing the weapons suites of the Australian Defence Force. Part 3 - The soldier combat ensemble and heavier support weapons. Pics Andrew Hooper and ADF

REST IN PEACE - too many ANZACs .... .... .... Corporal Luke Tamatea, Lance Corporal Jacinda Baker and Private richard Harris, NZDF, killed by an IED. Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathanael Galagher, 2 Cdo Regt, killed in helicopter crash. Sapper James Martin, 2CER, Lance Corporal Stjepan Milosevic, 2/14LHR (QMI), and Private Robert Poate, 3RAR, shot by ANA insider. Corporal Scott Smith, SOER, killed by IED during compound clearance.

Plus our regular columns; The Big Picture - British Army's Photographer of the Year Heads up - latest snippets from Australia, New Zealand and around the World Military Fitness by Don Stevenson Military Self Defence by Maj Iain Robertson Just Soldiers by WO1 Darryl Kelly Frontline Africa by Damien Mander Cadet Corner Book Reviews

COMBAT Camera is now published as an electronic on-line-only magazine COMBAT Camera is a new photo-essay magazine published exclusively as an on-line, page-flip, electronic magazine - and offered completely FREE by electronic subscription. COMBAT is a stable-mate of and designed to complement CONTACT Air Land & Sea. More than 2900 subscribers are currently signed up. COMBAT Camera sources official photos from the Defence forces of Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, New Zealand and others - and invites soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines from any country to submit unofficial materiel. Photos and brief stories for inclusion in COMBAT Camera can be sent to editor@militarycontact.com for consideration. COMBAT Camera will be published four times per year and released on the same day as CONTACT is released in newsagents. Issue #2 will be published on 30 November 2012.
To advertise in both magazines, see the Advertising page on this web site.

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