Spit Polish Discipline: Life in the Australian Army as a national service recruit - Paperback

by Peter Thomas Collins (Author), Janine Chipperfield (Author)

Happy living life as an ordinary young Aussie bloke of 19, bank teller Peter Collins' life is thrown into chaos when he finds himself a 'lucky' winner in Australia's National Service Scheme lottery of 1967. Passing the medical with flying colours, he is plucked from civilian life - complete with family, fledgling career, mates, and a girlfriend - to spend the next two years in the Australian Army.

Follow Peter's journey as a Nasho as he undergoes Recruit and Infantry Training at 3TB Singleton where the often funny, sometimes humiliating, spit and polish tactics of army personnel leave him with a greater understanding of the importance of discipline and mateship which he carries into Battle Efficiency Training with the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (6RAR) at Townsville's Lavarack Barracks and beyond.

Selected as part of the 6th Battalion's advance party to Vietnam in May 1969, Peter gets a crash course not only in jungle warfare but in the pub trade as he becomes the new steward of the Seldom Seen Inn, 6RAR Delta Company's (DCoy) boozer in Nui Dat. Life is not all beer and darts though. As a Company Sig (radio operator) Peter plays a key role in several jungle operations which are ultimately to leave him with recurring harrowing memories.

As he attempts to resume civilian life as an initially shunned Vietnam Veteran, Peter finds out that war cannot fail to scar the psyche or to have an insidious impact on all aspects of life.