Book Review by Bob Breen OAM
Somalia * East Timor * Afghanistan * Iraq
By Adrian Hodges
It’s uncommon for Australian infantry soldiers to write memoirs of their service. Most who have done so were veterans of the two World Wars, as well as Australia’s involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. More recent autobiographies typically get published because of the authors’ celebrity status or the prominence of the subjects. Adrian Hodges is not a celebrity due to acts of bravery or any other form of notoriety. He is an ordinary, hard-working soldier who epitomised the motto ‘Duty First.’
Hodges is a post-Cold War infantry soldier who participated in peace enforcement operations in Somalia, East Timor, Afghanistan and Iraq, leaving the Australian Army in 2019 after ‘served [ing] diligently for over three decades, … living at 16 addresses and spent [ing] periods of my military life in 17 different countries. I’d spent 31 months on operations around the globe; years and years spent on courses and training exercises away from my family.’
This story of a nomadic life, punctuated by hard training, overseas travel and operational experiences, promises to entertain and intrigue the reader with an insightful and enthralling narrative. More personally, the Preface states, ‘I’ve unwrapped a lot, many of my experiences that were suppressed for decades.’ Overall, the author enjoyed writing the book. It appears to have given him a sense of accomplishment as well as an opportunity to acknowledge family and friends who have helped him along the way.
The book details the training and operational experiences of infantry soldiers both in Australia and overseas during the 1990s and the early 21st century. The author begins with an inspiring account of Australian infantry doctrine and the life of the infantry soldier.
In the constant pursuit of excellence, the life of an infantryman is centred on mental and physical fitness and resilience, combat first aid, and mastering the myriad of weapons systems spanning into the double figures; anything and everything across any of our roles that touch tactics, techniques, and procedures. We call it battlecraft.
He affirms:
My life was committed [in 1987] to that of a professional soldier; I lost all contact with civilian friends, and my brothers from other mothers became my entire world. We were family; we trained, partied, fought, and suffered together.
After a detailed description of a near-death experience in a truck crash on Exercise Kangaroo 89 in the Northern Territory, that taught him, ‘the importance of the relentless pursuit of excellence every soldier must commit to in training and preparing for war’, the following two chapters describe a happy, adventurous childhood in the 1970s and 80s that was ‘a gift to me from my hard-working and tolerant parents’. … I carried the spirit of that adventurous kid within me, ready to embrace whatever the future held, for it is the essence of who I am, really, an adventurer at heart.’
Chapter 4 describes the author’s transition from ‘an overgrown boy’ of 17 years into ‘a certified soldier, confident, fit and smart, trained to a government-sanctioned level and ready to deploy anywhere on the globe on combat operations. We’re talking less than eight months; that’s it.’ … You can’t water down the relentless mental and physical conditioning it takes to perform efficiently and effectively as an infantry soldier during training and combat operations, to ultimately kill another human being in close quarters, with your personal weapon, a combat knife, or hand-to-hand if need be.’
The author leaves the reader in no doubt that recruit and initial employment training in 1987 was tough and challenging. He describes the time-honoured and effective system that combines the bind (putting everyone under pressure so they are forced to depend on each other), bond (insisting on teamwork and developing mateship), and build (training individuals in teams to compete against other teams) to make Australian soldiers the best in the world. He briefly mentions ‘unprofessional’ conduct by some instructors. Still, he doesn’t ‘call it out’ in any detail as a lesson on what not to do when training young Australians for military service. Physical assaults on young trainees have no place in the Australian Army.
Chapter 5 presents the author’s most significant contribution to understanding the essence of infantry soldiering: loyalty and commitment to one’s section, platoon, company, and battalion that extends beyond mere paid work. These organisations and the individuals within them become family. When he arrived at 1 RAR in Townsville in 1989, ‘hundreds of soldiers lived on base’ and ‘could go weeks without having to leave the unit.’ … ‘The boozer was open every night from 4 pm to 10 pm with the exception of Saturdays and Sundays, when it opened at 10 am.’
The following chapters testify to the dual ethos of ‘Work hard, play hard’ and ‘Train hard, fight easy’ that characterised 20th-century and early 21st-century infantry battalions. The book’s narrative is chock-full of the Army slang of the time, a treasure trove of the playful, mocking sayings, nicknames, and vocabulary of the era. It is a dry-humoured, colloquial, easy read
1 RAR’s annual training cycle in the early 1990s influenced the battalion’s outstanding performance in Somalia in 1993, which, after 30 years, was recognised with the Meritorious Unit Citation in 2023. ‘Awarding the Meritorious Unit Citation was a deeply moving and defining moment for many who served in the Horn of Africa.’ The author acknowledges that one of keys to success in Somalia’s demanding, complex, and brutal environment was adherence to the Rules of Engagement and a ‘Firm, fair and friendly, but not familiar’ approach to ordinary Somalis that ensured the innocent received a fair go and the evil doers received uncomfortable consequences for bad behaviour – the right balance of compassion and aggression.
The Somalia chapter is the best in the book, but once again, the author bypasses a critical discussion. He writes ‘Like several other events in my life, Somalia left a scar on my soul, but this time a little bit deeper. You can never free yourself from the images of the hungry, starving people, the pure suffering and heartlessness of a country tearing itself apart.’ Later in the book, he writes, ‘In my forties, I began to experience inexplicable fits of depression. They would appear from nowhere and plummet me into thoughts I’d never have imagined. … I was confused, angry, scared, but most of all, I was on the precipice of just walking away from everyone I loved. What was so confusing was that I was surrounded by so much love, a career and good health.’ He then summarises his success in managing symptoms rather than delving more deeply into his challenges and those of the mates he admired who faced the same challenges.
Adrian Hodges’s military career and his commitment to getting the job done are impressive. He displayed early promise by passing the close combat test in Somalia in 1993. After taking a four-year break, he returned and was rewarded for his strong performance with a promotion, preferred postings, and international adventures, culminating in a prestigious overseas assignment. However, the relationship soured when he chose a final international adventure as a contractor with the United Arab Emirates Presidential Guard over returning as an internationally credentialled RSM to Australia.
The Army had to adapt in the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. The Somalia operation in 1993 marked the beginning of over 20 years of near-regional and Middle Eastern operations. The Australian Infantry Corps had to train for these unfamiliar, culturally complex and politically sensitive areas of operation. Women joined the infantry for the first time. The author does not elaborate on these challenges and changes. The book is a chronicle of personal and professional events, a travelogue, and warm descriptions of relationships with family, admired peers and senior officers.
This book recounts the personal and professional story of one soldier during an intriguing period in Australia’s military history. While it may contain more descriptive detail than analysis and insights into the times, it is an outstanding testimony of an outstanding soldier.
The book was published by Big Sky Publications on 7 April 2025, in Paperback, 312 pages.
https://www.bigskypublishing.com.au/books/stay-loose/
