I don’t remember being an instigator, but I was most certainly a co-conspirator. It was pack mentality and I regret the behaviour. I look at it now and I can’t reconcile the behaviour of me and people around me.
On reflection, if I couldn’t tolerate it myself, why did I let it be done to others?
The abuses in DLA Piper are varied, from the obvious r-pe to the types of behaviour that is now simply called “unacceptable”. We called it tradition, because we were told it was.
The first six months at ADFA were the worst you’d ever experienced, but if you survived you’d be all the better for it. It was even part of our indoctrination. It imprinted on you how important it was to conform, be part of the rituals and embrace the culture of ADFA. I look at what was happening, some of those horrific acts, slowly watered down over time, but still horrific acts.
Where exactly is the turning point between the people who were, six months before, sane, sensible people with the values and morals of their upbringing, yet incapable of stopping the kinds of behaviours and activities at ADFA? How did I go from being considered leadership material to being turned so easily to bastardisation as defined in the DLA Piper report?
It’s the strong desire to belong. The need to be one of the boys, one of the Army-Rugby-Artists: minimal amount of academics, maximum amount of sports, and maximum amount of testosterone. The pressure to belong to that group were overwhelming, particularly as a 17-year-old.
We rationalised it as boys having harmless fun, or pranks played on people you liked, or bishing someone who deserved it. Repeatedly banging on a girl’s door late at night wasn’t frowned upon. If that was considered harmless fun in my time how much worse could you have gotten if those at 17 or 18 believe that this kind of behaviour was the norm?
I don’t think it’s the fault of those people, I think it’s the fault of the system. That’s not a popular view, but I have no other explanation for it.
It was a very tough time for me. I desperately wanted to fit the mould. It wasn’t me, but I did everything I could to be that. It wasn’t until much later that my true values asserted themselves despite the brainwashing.
How long after leaving an institutional environment like that do your own values return? For me instantly, but for others who moved into units with similar pack mentality it continued to be part the ADF.
If the public and independent inquiries determine that allowing the behaviour to continue constituted abuse, then fair cop. That’s a significant chunk of the ADF.
I’m willing to accept the consequences of those actions and I hope it doesn’t mean my job.
*This is an edited and approved transcript of a Crikey interview with the officer. He requested anonymity.
“The first six months at ADFA were the worst you’d ever experienced, but if you survived you’d be all the better for it. It was even part of our indoctrination. It imprinted on you how important it was to conform, be part of the rituals and embrace the culture of ADFA.”
I’ve never been in the armed services so I can’t really relate on reality in the ADFA on a personal level, however I do know ex soldiers – including one who was a Navy clearance diver and SAS commando in Iraq. The stories they tell would make your hair curl. As described in this excerpt the objective initially seems to be to weed out the weak, and break down personal spaces and thinking. You are now part of a group and should act like a group animal. The battlefield is not the place for reasoned debate and manners – you do, not think. How this initial “indoctrination” escalates into the stories we are hearing now is another matter. It seems that some (not the majority) use this as an excuse to satisfy their own wants and perversions. Ideally the ADFA leadership should be able to use their own power of authority to stomp on perpetrators, but it seems many of the bad apples got through to higher ranks and so think they make the rules. Hopefully a full commission of enquiry will weed out the rotten element and get the ADFA and armed forces in general back on track.
@MikeB – I did serve 6 years in the army but eerily it was in the UK and almost exactly as it appears to have been here in Australia. With the benefit of hindsight I think those who you know are absolutely correct in their assertion that this institutionalised behaviour was very specifically purposed to “weed out the weak, and break down personal spaces and thinking” and yes, from a military perspective it’s not hard to see why they would do or encourage it. That said, most knew where to draw the line and when that line was crossed rarely was there any notion of anything like a conspiracy to cover anything up. Like proper rugby of old, if you were at the bottom of a ruck and on the wrong side of the ball you knew exactly what was coming and gave no complaint when it arrived.
The only point I struggle with in this whole debate is that in the 25 years since I lived in this world everything associated with behavior, be it physical or verbal has changed almost beyond recognition (for the better I’d like to add). That the debate seeks to measure the behavior of 25 years ago against the considered and legislated standards of today is plainly ridiculous. So anon senior defence person, if you rationalise it in this context you shouldn’t have too much trouble sleeping at night. That said, I’d stay anonymous if I were you as people of today seem to only consider behavior in context of history if it was more than 300 years ago. …. and MikeB, I’d sincerely suggest that there is little or no possibility of the ADG getting “back on track” as I believe it’s probably never actually been on the track you imagined it was. What’s new is that finally this behavior is seen for what it is, unacceptable, but only against the standards of today which (quite rightly) have overtaken it.
… and I’d like to add (after having read item two in today’s Crikey), I was speaking only of the bullying behaviour which in my day was male on male and not in any way, shape or form anything close to being s_xual. I served with a guy convicted of rape, he got exactly what he deserved and 6 of us (his ‘comrades in arms’ (!)) happily testified against him. He was bad because he was bad not through anything the military taught him, made him or gave him any indication it was an ok thing to do. Back then nobody suggested it was anybody’s fault but his, I wonder how the same incident would be viewed today?
A couple of years ago we travelled to Canberra with our teenage son and daughter to have a tour of ADFA. At the time our son was thinking of applying to get in. He decided against it, and at the time we were were disappointed. Now I’m so relieved and thankful.
Tom I graduated from RMC Duntroon when it was a 4 year course in 1963
In my final year I was a Sergeant in charge of my own Platoon. The
bastardisation in my platoon was only restricted to discipline and only lasted
as long as it took for the new class to reach the high standard set by myself
and my own clssmates (Corporals) in the Platoon. Most members of the
new class quickly reached the standards required. For most bastardisation
lasted a few weeks.
Having served in Vietnam in Infantry I confirm the Australian Army wants
soldiers who know all the jobs in a section and thinks and supports each other.
The First World War wanted soldiers that never THOUGHT and they
died without a thought following dumb orders.
Bastardisation in the Armed Services sould have died out in the Second World War.
Most of what happened to me and from what I saw at Duntroon was nothing
but DUMB BULLYING by DUMB BULLIES. There was no reason for it.
and no logic to it. I noted the progress though the ranks of the worst Bullies
in my senior classes and few got far.