Our People in SA

Tungkillo man Tristan Burton, 21, is now in East Timor thanks to a radio commercial he heard when he was a teenager.

Tristan had thought about joining the Army when he was at high school, and then one day he heard an ad for the Army’s fitter-armourer trade.

“I though that would suit me just right,” Tristan said. “My grandfather was also in the Army, and that helped influence my decision to join too.”

Tristan enlisted in early 2007 and, after basic training, graduated from a 17-month trade course learning how to repair and service weapons. He then gained the Army rank of Craftsman, the trade equivalent of private.

Tristan passed more specialist courses to maintain armoured vehicle turrets, and then learnt to drive military vehicles.

He is now part of a two-man maintenance and inspection team in the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force in East Timor since late last year.

“Besides the weapons, I work on chainsaws, rock breakers, small engines and refuelling pumps for helicopters. I even do a bit of metal fabrication.

“What I like best is taking broken equipment and making it good again.

“And I’ve made a lot of good friends.”

[Editor’s note: Craftsman is the Army’s Electrical and Mechanical Engineer equivalent of Private]