Adam Kent shares rush of life in defence force

Every night he and his sergeant would take their ration packs to the top of Aussie House, as it was called, and watch the night set in. 

“There was always a beautiful view, there was amazing sunsets,” he said.

The darkening skies were often filled with tracer rounds, and artillery fire was the soundtrack to many Baghdad nights. “Sometimes it was just like the movies.”

Mr Kent spent a six-month stint in Iraq in 2003 sorting and delivering cargo in the early days of the war. Danger was always around the corner.

“At the time, I found I enjoyed it, I enjoyed the rush. Every time I’d do a run into town I had to be escorted by light armoured vehicles, you’d get intelligence briefs every morning, saying this many Americans were killed… the majority were by running over IEDs or being shot by snipers.

“I was just in a medium-rigid truck… I wasn’t protected.” For the first four months Mr Kent was based at Camp Victory, one of Saddam Hussein’s old palaces. Then the logistics soldiers moved out to the airport. 

“We copped a good three or four mortar attacks there over a couple of months, they were getting pretty close.

“You couldn’t do anything about them, you could hear them 300 metres away. It’s a weird feeling.”

Despite the danger, Mr Kent describes his time in the defence force as a positive experience. “I look back with more fonder memories than negative memories.”

He signed up to the army at 25 when, after training as a panel beater in Geelong and working on sheep stations, he decided he needed a new challenge. In 2001 he had his first deployment – East Timor – and was over there when the young nation celebrated independence day in 2002. “We worked as the drivers for the dignitaries. Bill Clinton was there; Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general; John Howard. That was interesting.”

Mr Kent was also deployed to a war zone of a different kind when he helped deliver cargo and humanitarian aid in the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami.

But family had always come first, and he left the army in 2006, but is still involved in Army Reserves.

On the subject of whether he would be happy for his three sons to sign up, Mr Kent said there was no point telling young adults they can’t do something. “You try to steer them in the right direction. Overall, I’d like to think I’ll bring up my three kids to make good decisions, whether it’s the army or whatever the scenario is.”