Sydney Morning Herald photographer Andrew Taylor photographs Cpl Travis Ingleby, 4RAR(Cdo) at the media conference. Photo by Cpl Belinda Mepham, Army newspaper

The media campaign

By Cpl Belinda Mepham

Civilian media were given the opportunity to touch and taste the equipment that Army soldiers are using on Op Falconer at a media conference in Canberra on March 25.

Cpl Travis Ingleby, 4RAR(Cdo), and Sgt Peter Burgess, IRR, modelled uniforms and some weapons used by Special Forces soldiers in the MEAO.

CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy described the characteristics of a SAS soldier, creating a word picture while the media had a close up look and began to understand how soldiers operate with their personal equipment on the deployment.

“They come through their training and through their operations adapted to hardship, able to accept the rigours of the life, but also very strong in their teams, very confident of their own abilities and very good at their task,” he said.

The display of personal equipment issued to soldiers on Op Falconer including rations and water helped the media to get a grip on the images and stories they have been questioning in the past week.

There were also biological and chemical suits on display, however, when the media were given the opportunity to get out of their seats and see the display, most wanted to see the actual socks and jocks of the operation.

The interactive conference showed that the civilian media were interested in the personal welfare of soldiers at war.

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