Our People in QLD
Tristan Chapman - Topping off a great career
Flight Sergeant Tristan Chapman, 36, is an Airfield Defence Guard. Normally based at RAAF Base Amberley as a Base Safety Officer, he has been assigned to the RAAF’s Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan, part of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.
“It’s been an excellent six months,” he said. “It’s been my first deployment in 20 years in the RAAF, and I feel it’s really topped off my career.
Flight Sergeant Chapman is the second-in-command of force protection at the CRC’s base called Camp Palomino, where his co-workers user a giant portable radar dish and radio procedures to manage the airspace of Afghanistan, ensuring that military aircraft can go about their business in a safe and efficient manner
Now at the end of his six-month deployment, Flight Sergeant Chapman said he had experienced a wide range of temperatures during his time in Afghanistan. “In August when I arrived it was very hot, with temperatures in the high forties,” he said. “Now it’s winter and it’s very cold with snow, but it’s been worthwhile.
“Because looking back over Afghanistan’s past, and what’s happening now and in the future you can see that the Afghans are taking a step in the right direction, and we’re helping them along.”
Flight Sergeant Chapman’s parents still live in Rochedale, and he said they still support his career with the same enthusiasm they had when he joined the RAAF at age 17. “They are concerned for my safety,” he said, “but they know we are pretty much safe here. My dad served in the Royal Air Force and was deployed for a couple of years, and he told me to keep my head down and just keep on going.”
Flight Sergeant Chapman said the hardest thing about his deployment was being so far from home for so long. “I’ve been able to speak to my wife daily and talk to my parents and in-laws weekly though, which has been great. I have two young daughters, and my eldest is coping well now, although at first she didn’t – she was always asking for me. My youngest daughter is too young to understand, and when I went home for my mid-tour leave she didn’t know who I was at first. But I expected that, and after a couple of days everything was good again.”
What helped bridge the miles was the military mail system which Flight Sergeant Chapman’s family used to a great extent. “I’ve received a lot of packages from my family, including my in-laws,” he said. “It’s awesome to get mail here, it means that someone at home is thinking of you, and it’s great to get things that you can’t get here.”
Flight Sergeant Chapman said he is looking forward to five weeks of leave when he gets home. “A beer will definitely be on the cards, along with some BBQs and relaxing back in Queensland where I will be warm again,” he said.