Message from CDF Gen Peter Cosgrove

As 2002 draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the men and women of the ADF for their hard work, professionalism and dedication throughout the year.

At no other time in my period of service have we had ADF elements committed to so many diverse operational scenarios. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and women have performed magnificently on these operations and done the ADF and the nation proud.

There are many ADF members who remained at home and provided vital support to these deployments. I thank you for your efforts. Without you, our numerous operations could not have been as successful as they have been.

In addition to our many deployments, the ADF has also been extremely busy training on single service and joint exercises, on joint exercises and with other defence forces both at home and abroad, as well as providing humanitarian assistance at short notice when required to do so.

I know the separations that we endure from our family members when we are deployed on operations or exercises is keenly felt at any time of the year but never more so than at Christmas. I appreciate the sacrifice and commitment of those members who will not be with their loved ones during the festive season. Rest assured your work is very much valued and appreciated.

I would sincerely like to thank ADF families for their superb and continuous support during this busy year. We could not do our jobs effectively without knowing that our loved ones here at home are proud and supportive of our efforts.

I would also like to acknowledge the support provided by DPE, DMO, CSIG and the Department to the Services their military colleagues and joint this year. Your work behind the scenes is crucial and makes us, I believe, the greatest department of State.

I wish you all a safe and Merry Christmas. I look forward to working with you in the New Year.
Peter Cosgrove
General
Chief of the Defence Force

Thank you for dedication and sacrifice

Message from Defence Minister Robert Hill

2002 has been a difficult and challenging year, with the ADF engaged in its highest operational tempo since the Vietnam War and called on to assist after the devastating bombings in Bali.

You have risen to the challenges, serving our country professionally and with distinction.

I would like to take the opportunity this festive season to say thankyou.

Not just to the many personnel who have been deployed far and wide this year, but also to the rest of the Defence community – especially families – that provide the essential support for our force.

We very much appreciate the sacrifices that you make and the dedication with which you serve.

I wish you a happy and safe Christmas and I look forward to working with you again in 2003.
Robert Hill
Minister for Defence

Message from Minister Dana Vale

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you and your family a safe, happy and peaceful Christmas, and to send you my best wishes for 2003.

I know there are some families who will be spending Christmas away from loved ones serving on deployment.

Our thoughts are with you and with your family members, who are serving our nation in places such as East Timor and Bougainville, the Persian Gulf and on ships to Australia’s north.

The men and women of the Australian Defence Force do an outstanding job defending Australia’s national interests wherever and whenever they are called to serve.

They would not be able to do so without the love, support and understanding of their families.

The end of the year can also be a hectic time for Defence personnel and their families, when many face the challenges of new postings and moving interstate away from friends and family.

For those moving, I wish you every success in your move to a new home and trust that you will make many new friends in your communities. In the past year as Minister I have seen the Defence community and network provide enormous support for personnel and their families – support that I know is very much welcomed.

I hope that as you look back on the year you share an overwhelming feeling of pride in the work of our Australian Defence Force. They are indeed the pride of the nation.

The Australian community is thankful for the men and women of the ADF and for the commitment of their families who love and support them.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Danna Vale
Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence

Message from Parliamentary Secretary Fran Bailey

This past year has been a busy one, full of challenges and demands not just for each of you but for your families as well.

It has been a real privilege and honour to have had the opportunity of meeting many of you throughout my many and varied visits around the country and seeing first hand, the important role you play within Defence.

You have all worked hard in representing Australia, at times travelling far from home for long periods and I would like to thank you for your initiative and for your personal effort.

The job you have is important to all Australian’s and I know it is appreciated and valued by people in all our communities.

You are the human face of our Defence Force and in everything you do and wherever you are posted, my thoughts go with you at this special time of the year.

I wish you and your families a safe and happy Christmas and hope to see many of you in 2003.
Fran Bailey
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence

Love for all of us - with Chap Mick Taylor

It was a late hour on Christmas Eve in 1979. I was on duty at Lavarack Barracks, Townsville, an 18-year-old private soldier. This was my first Christmas away from home, having joined the Army only that year.

My old dad had retired from the Army a couple of years before, and when I told him I was part of rear details and wouldn’t be home for Christmas, he seemed to think it was normal and said there wouldn’t be any presents. (Postscript: there were!)

The radio was on, and of course, the stations were all broadcasting carols and warm tales of Christmas cheer. Opposite me was Sgt Aldridge, and we were playing cards.

Sgt Aldridge had a face of flint, a fiery personality, and, like many of his peers, had fought in Vietnam several years before.

His eyes always looked – well, dangerous. But I liked Aldridge. A few months before, he showed me and Fitzy the disappearing art of starching greens ourselves. Surprisingly, it looked better than the drycleaners. But I also learned that beneath his sharp temper, Aldridge also had a sharp sense of humour.

“Rome wasn’t built in a day, son,” explained Aldridge with that raspy voice of his, dealing the cards. But Lavarack Barracks was. They built it with a spanner and slabs of concrete one Friday afternoon. Started down one end at 1400hrs, and they were all pretty well done by 1730.”

“I didn’t know that, Sarge.”

I smiled. We played the hand, but Aldridge wasn’t done yet.

“See, son, Lavarack Barracks was originally meant to be a decoy. But then – can you believe it – we moved into it.”

His attempts to distract me failed, and I won the hand.

We played another, and I noticed that 4AY was broadcasting Silent Night “… all is calm … all is bright …”

“Hey, son. Tell me. What do you make of all this Christmas stuff?”

I thought for a moment.

“I don’t know.” I finally replied. “What do you think?”

He surveyed his cards, and then he put them down, and looked past me, out the window, gathering his thoughts.

“… Sleep in heavenly peace … sleep in heavenly peace.”

“You know what I think?” he said, still looking out the window, “I think Christmas is only for them real nice sort of people. It’s for the people who have them flash happy homes, a real nice family, and a big bouncy dog. Know what I mean? Family. Kids.

Nice people. So fair dinkum, son, Christmas was not meant for people like me. And that’s how it goes.”

I said nothing, and we continued to play cards…

Across the years, I wish I could have told Aldridge that he was wrong about Christmas.

It is especially for him.

It’s for those who felt left out, outside, abandoned in the darkness of human sufferings.

It’s for the broken, and the lonely.

Last year, I sat in a waiting area of a medical centre, and a booklet caught my eye: For the Children of Vietnam Veterans. It was put together by the Vietnam Vets Association. It caught my eye, because it was addressed to me, and very uneasy memories of my Dad coming home from Vietnam a very, very different man came punching back into my mind as I read the booklet carefully.

Then, one part of the booklet said “It is important for you to realise that nothing that happened in your home when you were a child was your fault. It was not because of you that your Dad was like that. You did nothing wrong. It was not your fault.”

And I was glad I was sitting in the waiting room by myself, because when I read those words, I just started to cry, and it would have been an amazing sight for someone to have walked in to see the brigade chaplain sitting there in a flood of tears.

And I remembered Sgt Aldridge too, and I later wondered if he ever found out the good news about Christmas . . .

When tears are done, and we can survey the vast dark terrains of human calamities and sorrows, Christmas at its highest is about God’s love breaking into our world, a love so intimate and so overwhelming that Christ is brought to birth.

But this didn’t happen in a nice, clean, safe, comfortable, well-lit place where there’s a happy family and a big bouncy dog.
It happened outside.

Christ was born in a dark, dank, filthy, smelly manger.

The manger is where we feel rejected, destroyed, ashamed. It’s where things are kept hidden, where atrocities happen, where there seems to be nothing else but grief and despair.

This is where God chooses to meet us, to embrace us, to accept us, to begin the work of our salvation. This is where it begins.

Christmas is for people like Sgt Aldridge.

And for people like my broken Dad.

For people like me.

For people like you.

Christmas Day that year, I – and my fresh-faced peers – were delighted to see how the Other Ranks Mess had been transformed, and we all ooooooooo-ed at the great spread of food the cooks had put on for us. And there were officers wearing full kit with sam-browns, waiting on us diggers, serving the food, and fetching us beers.

This too is another great image of what God is like to the world and a fine tradition that should never be let to die.

To all the readers of Army, whether going on leave, or still on duty, whether at home or overseas – on behalf of all the chaplains across Army – thank you for a beaut 2002.

To those at home – cheers, and enjoy it!

To those on duty, across Australia or overseas, your hour will come, and our best thoughts and prayers go with you and your loved ones.

Have a happy and holy Christmas and a great 2003. Keep safe. Keep your humour. Keep being the best of people, and thereby be the very best Army in the world. Happy Christmas!

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