Kapooka – A reader’s questions

This morning, I got some great questions from a reader – questions I haven’t addressed yet. I could have just responded to his comments, but instead I thought I’d put it all down in a post to make the information easier for my readers to find. So here’s the questions:

Hey there,
I was wondering if you could help me understand what Kapooka has to offer in a little more detail.

– I am applying for ‘Rifleman’ within the army. I am aware that I may have to wait 6 – 12 months before i receive a letter of offer but does Kapooka gaurantee me a job within the ADF? or is it just something all applicants must do?

– If Kapooka doesn’t gaurantee me employment however, I succeed, does only a select few get selected for Initial Employment Training?

– If succesfull in gaining employment with the ADF will i have a choice of where I will be posted to? For example if I request Brisbane will I have the opportunity to wait until positions in that location are available or must I be assigned to a unit straight away?

– Finally, is there any age discrimination to gain employment in a role of a Rifleman? I’m 17yrs old but I am very physically capable. So in plain words… Any restrictions?

Some good stuff there. I’ve broken the questions down and answered them individually below.

– I am applying for ‘Rifleman’ within the army. I am aware that I may have to wait 6 – 12 months before i receive a letter of offer but does Kapooka gaurantee me a job within the ADF? or is it just something all applicants must do?

This question reminded me of another recent concern I received from a reader. Kapooka is TRAINING, it’s not an ASSESSMENT. This means that you will be taught how to be an Australian Soldier at Kapooka – not tested to see if you already have the knowledge. If you pass the training at Kapooka, Yes, you are guaranteed employment in the Australian Army.

– If Kapooka doesn’t gaurantee me employment however, I succeed, does only a select few get selected for Initial Employment Training?

Even though I’ve answered the first part of this question above, I wanted to address the issue of IETs. At the completion of Kapooka, you’re trained in the basics of being a “soldier”, but not in a “trade”. So everyone that gets through Kapooka has to then go to an IET course. The issue is that your IET course may not be ready for you as soon as you finish Kapooka. I talk about that specific issue in my post: What happens after Kapooka?

– If succesfull in gaining employment with the ADF will i have a choice of where I will be posted to? For example if I request Brisbane will I have the opportunity to wait until positions in that location are available or must I be assigned to a unit straight away?

Yes and No. From your IET course, your Corps will decide where they want you to go first and you’ll get very little say in that decision. During your first posting, you’ll be asked to provide your “posting preferences” to your Career Manager – the guy in Canberra who manages the back end of your career. You can list THREE units, cities or jobs that you want and ONE that you don’t want. Your Career Manager will take your choices into account when deciding where to post you, but remember that the needs of the Army ALWAYS come first. If you ask for Brisbane, but 1 RAR in Townsville is desperately short of soldiers, you’ll probably get 1 RAR.

– Finally, is there any age discrimination to gain employment in a role of a Rifleman? I’m 17yrs old but I am very physically capable. So in plain words… Any restrictions?

There’s no minimum age to join as a Rifleman. It’s one of the few roles in the Army that ANYONE can be assigned to. In fact, if you don’t perform well at Kapooka, you should expect to be assigned to Rifleman. I thought that defence jobs.gov.au would have info about the specific physical requirements for Rifleman, but let’s face it, that web site is really quite poor.

The physical requirements are much higher than Kapooka. Kapooka will provide a certain level of fitness, but if you’re already quite fit, you might not get that much out of it. Heading off the Singleton for your Rifleman IET course will REALLY put you through your paces. People who were a lot less fit than you managed to become successful Rifleman, so you shouldn’t have any problems at all.

Episode 2

Here it is! Apologies to all my readers who read Episode 1 and have waited patiently for the second instalment. I promised a few anecdotes in the first episode, so I promise to cover them this time around.

Training was hard and never ending. Even though I spent a few years in the Army Cadets before joining the Army, I still learned a lot. And not just ironing uniforms and folding socks! What we found was that the days went REALLY slow, but the weeks seemed to fly by.

Towards the end of training, you do a huge assessment of your basic infantry and field skills, called The Challenge. It’s 15km of hell (obstacle course, dam crossing, section attack, stretcher carry and forced marching), followed by a shoot at the range. You go out field a day or so before The Challenge starts, and on the night before, you go “non tac” (short for “non tactical”, meaning you get to have fires, make noise, use light, etc).

We had a huge bonfire and soft drinks were brought it to accompany our BBQ dinner. In Infantry terms, this was like heaven. We were all chilling out, getting to speak openly with our platoon staff for pretty much the first time, and everyone was having a great time. The temperature was dropping, and I was standing right at the edge of the fire trying to keep warm.

One of the things you learn during basic training is how to harness your inner aggression and how to tap into it very quickly. It’s the key to successful Infantry skills. So there I was, RIGHT on the edge of the fire, when someone walked behind me and gave me a shove. I took a full step forward – into this huge bonfire we had going.

Instantly, my aggression was switched on. I stepped back out of the fire, spun around and got ready for a fight, yelling: “Who f**king pushed me into the fire!” and I’m pretty sure my fists were up. What I saw, was my section commander standing there with a grin on his face. But I think my reaction surprised him, because his smile disappeared and he took a step back. As soon as I realised it was him, I backed off, fearing the worst, and said “Sorry, Corporal”. He responded with “You’ve got balls, recruit”.

Even though he was having a bit of fun, back then I could have found myself in some real trouble. Either facing a charge for swearing at him, or worse – going toe-to-toe with him! He was only a short, wiry guy, but he was Infantry, and at the time he was the toughest bloke I think I’d ever seen. Everyone had a good laugh – including the CPL and I – and we all went to bed early, ready for the challenge.

The next morning we were up early, preparing for The Challenge. It was seriously tough. One of our guys tripped at about the halfway mark, and later we learned he dislocated his knee. It had popped back in, but he was in serious pain for the last half of The Challenge. A few times he wanted to drop out, but that would mean being back-squadded – doing some retraining and then doing The Challenge all over again. Through the power of teamwork, we kept him going right through the end, and he literally collapsed as soon as he crossed the finish line. But he passed.

The Challenge is done right at the end of training. It’s like your final assessment of your skills. So a few days later, you start practicing for the March Out Parade which marks the actual completion of training – which used to occur about a week after The Challenge.

Everyone’s families are invited to the parade, and they usually arrive a day or two early. The day before the parade, they put on a BBQ at the base’s club, and the families get to come and spend time with you for the afternoon. My father and step-mother came and I introduced them to some of the guys from my platoon and my section and we spent a few hours chatting, eating and drinking. It was great.

After the parade, the families were again invited to the club, where we got to drink some more to celebrate and we also had that night off to go into town or do whatever we wanted. Prior to going to Kapooka, I was never really a beer drinker. But it’s a cheap drink (well, it was back then), and on recruits wages, it was the drink of choice. So once again, I got to spend some time with my Dad and my section and drink WAY too much.

And that’s when I realised I was outdrinking my father! The section had gotten into a round of “shouts”, and when it was my turn, I realised Dad wasn’t keeping up with the rest of us. I thought that was quite surprising, since I grew up in a country town, where Dad and his mates used to work on cars and trailers all day – constantly drinking. But to his credit, when a few of the guys wanted to go out on the town that night, Dad tagged along.

Sadly, my father passed away from cancer in 2002, only months before I was to deploy to East Timor – the first major Australian deployment since Vietnam. I knew he was proud of me joining the Army, and if there’s one thing I regret, it’s that after 12 years’ service, he never got to share in the joy of me finally getting to go overseas.

Kapooka – your questions answered

It seems my Kapooka posts are pretty popular, and I’ve been looking at some of the questions people have been googling that got them here. I want to start by saying that if you have a specific question, you should feel free to ask them through the comment section below.

One question I’ve been seeing lately is: How much money will I spend at Kapooka?

Naturally, I can’t really give a definitive answer to that one. For the first few weeks, you’re not going to be spending a whole lot, since you never really get to go anywhere. Maybe the odd trip to the canteen for some juice or supplies, but nothing really exciting. After that, you’ll get to go into Wagga Wagga for the day, and naturally you can spend as much or as little as you like. A lot of guys like to go see a movie or do some shopping, but usually, you end up at a bar, so make sure you have enough money for some drinks.

Between that trip and the end of Kapooka, I think you get another day or two in town, plus your trips to the canteen become more frequent, and right near the end of training, you get to go to “the boozer” a few times, where you can indulge in some drinks with your platoon.

There’s an ATM on base, plus of course there’s ATMs in Wagga Wagga, so don’t feel you need to carry hundreds of dollars in cash when you leave home.

Another query I see a lot runs along the lines of: What percentage of recruits pass Kapooka

This one really is quite easy to answer – around 98%. There’s very few reasons why you WOULDN’T pass Kapooka. Recruit training – like every course you’ll ever do in the Army – is actually designed to get you through with a pass. If you’re struggling with the training and can’t keep up, they will start by providing extra training to help you improve your skills in the area where you’re struggling.

You’ll generally only get about a week to improve any sub-standard skills, since any longer than that will start to effect your ability to keep up with your platoon. So if you can’t improve to a suitable standard in that week, you may find yourself “back squadded”, where they re-assign you to another platoon that is a few weeks behind your own platoon. This will give you the chance to re-do lessons and practice your skills before progressing. But once you’ve been back squadded, you have to stay with that platoon until you march out.

So aside from being discharged from the Army (usually for disciplinary or medical reasons), you will stay at Kapooka until you pass. Naturally, there is a percentage of people who go to Kapooka, but it becomes evident that they’re just not suited to the Army. This group of people is a tiny, tiny minority, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find one. These days, pretty much anyone can get in, and it’s up to the Corporals at Kapooka to train them.

And the last question for this post is: What’s a Holding Platoon?

A holding platoon is an “administrative” platoon, where recruits are assigned while they’re waiting for something to happen. This could be anything from arriving early, and needing to wait until more of your new platoon arrive. It could be that you’re being back squadded, but there’s no new platoon for you to go to right now. Or it could be that you were injured, and you need somewhere to “be” while you’re recovering.

And lastly, you might go to a holding platoon AFTER you’ve completed your training, and you’re waiting for your IET course to start. Recruits could be in holding platoon for a couple of days or a couple of months. It all depends on why you’re there and what the hold up is.

So if you have any more specific questions, ask away!

What if I don’t like Kapooka?

I’ve seen this search term a lot on my blog recently. It seems that while there’s plenty of you out there willing to give the Army a try, there’s a few people who are a little worried about what happens if they get there and realise “This isn’t for me”.

Well sadly, there’s not much you can do. In general, recruits aren’t permitted to leave Kapooka unless either you’re injured to the point where you can no longer serve in the Army, you commit some kind of heinous crime that results in a charge, conviction and dismissal.

There are three more ways to leave Kapooka: Complete the training and “march out”; be so ridiculously hopeless that it isn’t possible for the Army to train you to be a soldier, and the last is to go AWOL. But let’s get one thing straight, AWOL is VERY serious. They will look for you for years to come, and when you’re found, you WILL face charges, and you COULD go to jail.

If you’re prepared to go to Kapooka, you should be prepared to accept that you’re going to be in the Army at least for the duration of your initial employment contract – usually 4 years.

The Army isn’t in the business of being an outlet for people to test their fitness levels. You can’t just join up, go through Kapooka and then leave, knowing that you’re at the top of your game. Once you’re in, you’re in.

So think long and hard before taking that final step. If you really think it’s not for you, then it probably isn’t. People join the ADF for a variety of reasons, and in my opinion, the main reason is still to serve their country. You shouldn’t be thinking about Kapooka as a “Let’s see how this goes” kind of thing. You need to be looking at it as a stepping stone to a career.

It’s no secret that the government is planning to remove Australian troops from Afghanistan in 2014, so if you’re only enlisting this in 2013, you shouldn’t be expecting a deployment anytime soon. There’s still plenty of “threats” out there, so you never know when – or where – we’ll be heading next, but it could be 5 or 10 years before Australia sends another large body of troops anywhere.

Kapooka – How much will I get paid?

This post is in response to a query I received by one of my readers. She asked me to clarify how much recruits are paid, and what other allowances and entitlements they receive. You’ll see that this is a long post, and that’s because the ADF offers a lot of entitlements, and some are dependent on your circumstances.

THIS INFORMATION IS CORRECT AS AT 21 AUGUST, 2012

When you enlist in the Army and head off to Kapooka, your rank is Recruit, but for administrative purposes, you are known as a Trainee.

The base salary for a Recruit is $32,799 per year and is subject to income tax.

This increases to $37,485 during IET training, and is subject to income tax.

Recruits also receive Trainee Allowance which is paid to compensate for the “special demands” imposed upon Recruits.

Trainee Allowance is $9,092 per year and is subject to income tax.

ADF personnel also receive Uniform Allowance, which is designed to assist you with the maintenance and replacement of non-combat clothing – like your ceremonial uniforms, socks, etc.

Uniform Allowance is $419 per year and is tax free WHEN IT IS PAID TO YOU. But it still counts as income when you do your tax – so if you don’t spend it, you will have to pay tax on it at tax time!

So that covers your actual pay, which equates to $1,622.85 per fortnight. To work out fortnightly rates, you divide the annual rate by 365 and then multiply it by 14.

In addition to salary, if you have a family when you enlist, you also receive financial assistance if you are renting the house where your family live. Soldiers who have families are known as a Member With Dependents (or MWD), but if you are separated from your family for service reasons (such as attending Kapooka), you become MWD Unaccompanied (or MWD(U)).

MWD personnel receive Rental Assistance, which is based on the market rent for whatever city or town you live in, and what your family composition is (obviously, the more kids you have, the more bedrooms you need!). Here is the link to the ADF manual that explains everything about RA, including what your rental ceiling is: Rental Assistance

In essence, you find out what your Rental Ceiling is based on your bedroom entitlement, and then deduct your contribution from that ceiling. This sounds a little complex, and it kind of is, because there are some funky rules about how many bedrooms you’re entitled to. But Defence Housing Australia (DHA (www.dha.gov.au)) can help you.

RA is NOT subject to ANY tax at ANY time. EVER.

Generally, soldiers who “live in” (ie: live on the base) are expected to pay for their meals and their accommodation, however RECRUITS are not – so you get to live and eat for free while you are at Kapooka! When you leave Kapooka and move to your IET course, you should expect your pay to drop when the Pay Office starts charging you for your room and meals.

And naturally, on top of all that, you have to pay tax and superannuation. The ADF has it’s own Super fund (Military Superannuation Benefit Scheme (MSBS)), which you MUST contribute to. You must pay a minimum of 5% of your salary, but you can increase that to a maximum of 10%, in increments of 1%. You are free to contribute to another fund of your choice, but you MUST contribute to MSBS as well.

MSBS is an interesting super fund. It is a standard, “compliant” fund, which means it must follow all the rules and amendments stipulated by the Government, but there are certain conditions for super funds that are provided by the Government.

For instance, the Employer Payments made by the Government are not PHYSICAL payments. The Government provides a guarantee of payment, rather than putting actual money into everyone’s super account – this is known as an “unfunded” benefit.

In addition, the payments that the Government makes (or guarantees) is not set at the base rate for Employers. It’s actually bracketted. When you first enlist, the base rate is slightly lower than the standard rate, but when you reach the top bracket (after about 15 years from memory), it’s somewhere around double the standard rate.

You can read more about MSBS at these links:

ADF Pay and Conditions manual

MSBS Website

So that’s about it for money. Obviously, when you leave for Kapooka, you will need to make sure you have your bank account details and your tax file number handy for your arrival so that they can get you paid. You should expect your first few pays to be done in cash, since it can take a little while for your details to be loaded onto the pay system.

Another thing I’d like to pass on is that the ADF’s pay system isn’t the best in the world. We get paid fortnightly, but anything that is entered in the system will occur in two pay day’s time – so that means somewhere from 2 to 4 weeks, depending on when in the fortnight your pay changes.

And on top of that, RA is handled by DHA – not your local pay clerk. So that means you should expect to wait for quite some time before your RA finally starts in your pay. Don’t stress though, it will all be backdated, but especially for RA, there’s a chance it won’t start until you’re about to leave Kapooka.

To speed things up a bit for you, make sure you take along a copy of a current lease and get a rent receipt that covers the date that you enlisted in the Army – not the date you start Kapooka; the date you enlisted. DHA need that info to start the allowance, so if you take it with you, you’ll be a step ahead of the game.

A word about Kapooka

The other day I was contacted by a reader about her impending enlistment. She asked some very good questions, but something in her comments triggered a memory of mine and I thought I should share it with you.

When you go to Kapooka, you WILL change. Naturally, you’ll change physicall, because Kapooka will get you fit and tone you up a bit. But the changes are more than physical.

You’ll be entering a world of short haircuts, discipline and respect. This may not seem like a significant issue, and for some it probably isn’t. But for others, it’s a very different lifestyle to what they’re used to.

One of the major changes you will notice in yourself is that the next time you get to come home and see your friends again – you may not like them as much. Sounds crazy, right? But at Kapooka, you start to get your priorities a bit straight, and some people realise that their friends aren’t the kind of people they want to hang out with anymore.

You will really need to watch out for that. It can be disappointing if it happens to you, but in the long run, it’s a good thing. After all, if you realise you don’t like your old friends anymore, it’s probably because they’re not heading in the right direction.

You’ll also start to respect people more. Kapooka will put you in your place as far as heirarchy goes, and you will start to see that you’re really close to the bottom. This means that you will develop some respect for older people and professional people. You may even develop some respect for the battlers that are working their arses off to make ends meet.

You know that lady at the food court that wipes the tables down after all the pigs have finished eating? Suddenly, you’ll realise that she isn’t the kind of person that doesn’t deserve your time anymore. She’s just doing what she can to pay her bills. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself thanking these people or even having a conversation with them.

But one of the biggest changes you’ll go through at Kapooka is realising some things about yourself. You may discover that you haven’t been very good to yourself in the past, and start to change that. You might find that Kapooka helps you learn to motivate YOURSELF to get things done, instead of having to be nagged by your mother all day long.

Another change that occurs is that you’re entering quite an amazing group of people. Believe it or not, all of the “bad” statistics go down for you if you’re in the ADF. What I mean is that there are less incidences of depression, suicide and alcoholism in the ADF then in general society.

Why? There’s a few reasons for that. Firstly, we have annual training about these things, and Defence goes a long way to ensure they provide great “coping” tools. There are plenty of avenues you can use if you’re feeling depressed, or having trouble cope.

But I can hear the thoughts running through your head. We’re always hearing on TV about drunken soldiers who do stupid things, or a soldier who killed himself, right? And do you know why that is? There is one, very simple reason for it. It sells. That’s it.

When was the last time you watched TV and heard the headline “Carpenter commits suicide” or “Drunken service station attendant starts fight in bar”. Never, and why? Because who really gives a shit? Nobody. But make that a soldier that commited suicide, or started a fight and suddenly people want to know about it.

And so, despite our comparatively low stats on these things, it SEEMS that we’re always suffering from these issues, because the media need a headline that grabs your attention. Over the years, I have heard of soldiers who have done amazing things in public, yet nothing has been said.

I have MET soldiers who have done amazing things in public, and yet they are unkown. In fact, I myself have DONE a couple of things that I like to think are pretty amazing in public, yet have not even received a thank you.

Soldiers have done everything from STOPPING fights, chasing down offenders, freeing people from crashed vehicles, prevented crimes, given CPR and saved lives, to rescuing children. And not because they were called upon – because they were there.

But again, I digress. Just remember that if or when you go through Kapooka, keep an eye out for subtle changes in yourself. You never know, you might become a better (and healthier!) person.

 

 

 

Even more about Kapooka #3

So first up, I have to ask why you – my readers – have not been posing questions to me? I see the search terms that bring you to my blog, and I know that my posts don’t include the info that people are searching for. So as I always do, I’m going to encourage you to ask me any question about Kapooka if you don’t get the info you need from reading the posts.

Some of the latest search terms I’ve seen relate to swearing at Kapooka, and writing to someone who is at Kapooka. I’ll start with the swearing.

Yes, there is swearing at Kapooka, and you should expect plenty of it. You’ll rarely hear the “C” word, but there;s plenty of f**k’s and shits. And neither I, nor the staff there, will apologise for that. The strange thing is though, that you may even learn new ways to use these swear words.

The Army is a great job, and people join for all sorts of reasons. But let’s get one thing straight right here – the Army is serious shit. If you decide to join up, you should be fully prepared to deploy overseas into a war zone, and you should be fully prepared to be in a situation where you need to pick up a weapon and use it.

And you don’t learn those skills, and the attitude it takes to be able to turn on that aggression, by being treated like a 5 year old. The whole idea of Kapooka is to basically untrain all the “bad”, civilian traits you have, and teach you to be a soldier.

I’m not saying that lightly spoken people with a caring attitude won’t make it, but you need to learn the ability to use “controlled aggression”, and you will learn that at Kapooka. There will be times when you are hungry, cold, tired and physically exhausted, yet you still need to push on for an hour – or another 5km. And you will learn how to do that at Kapooka.

Even though you’re going to be taught a bunch of skills, you’re also going to be taught a series of new attitudes – like thinking of your team before yourself, and how to shut your mouth when you’re being disciplined.

So yes, there’s swearing. It’s not inappropriate (these days!), but you need to get over it and soldier on.

The second issue is writing to people at Kapooka. And you should DEFINITELY do this. At Kapooka, recruits are working VERY long days, and they get very little personal time – similar to being overseas. The biggest morale boost that any recruit can experience is when they get mail. So send letters.

But writing to absent soldiers is a bit of an art. They will know that you are at home, working your butt off at your own job and paying the bills, and cleaning the house, and putting up with your Mother who calls every week to nag you. But honestly, they don’t want to hear about that.

I wanted to join the Army for as long as I can remember, and when I finally joined, I found myself crying myself to sleep on more occasions than I like to admit. It’s bloody tough. So don’t write about how the washing is building up, or that the lawn needs to be mowed. All you’re doing is adding stress to your loved one.

What they want to hear about is how everyone is going. If they’re ok, of course, lol. Tell them how you spoke to so-and-so on the phone about their upcoming holiday, or how your sister came by for coffee on the weekend. Remind your loved one that you miss them and that you think about them often.

Feel free to ask about their day or week. Ask about what food they have been eating. Ask about what they have been doing at PT, or at the range. Everyone’s favourite topice is themselves, so these questions will show that you’re interested in what they’re doing, and give them something to write back about.

And here’s a tip if your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend is at Kapooka – send them something cheeky. Be carfeul with sending photos, since I think some of the letters are checked by mail staff. But add a cheeky/sexy/naughty paragraph in your letter about a dream you had, or what you would like to do if they were home.

Maybe write a sexy or romantic poem (trust me, it’s not hard), or depending on your relationship, just write something plain dirty, lol. This stuff cheers up your recruit like you would not believe. It may even give them something nice to think about at night when they’re in bed. And who knows, you might get a VERY interesting reply!!

 

 

 

Even more about Kapooka #2

I keep seeing more and more search queries that bring people to my blog, that relate to what happens at – and after – Kapooka, which is where basic training is conducted for the Australian Army.

This is my fifth post on Kapooka itself, plus I have one about the RAINF IET course at Singleton. You can read my previous posts here:

What happens after kapooka

More about Kapooka

Even more about Kapooka

Leave after Kapooka

RAINF IET

But the latest search terms I’ve seen are getting a little more specific. One asks when the “Challenge” occurs. The Challenge is the final field phase of training and is designed to encompass everything you have learned at Kapooka that relates to fieldcraft.

Keep in mind I did this 22 years ago, so things might have changed slightly, although probably not that much. From memory, the Challenge was something like 15km of full-on action – but it may have been longer. And today? Who knows.

It all started with a 5km forced march in full pack, known as Marching Order. You’re probably carrying around 30kg all-up, comprising of your weapon, webbing and pack. Once you finish the 5km, you drop your packs and continue with your weapon and webbing, known as Patrol Order.

From there you go through a series of events, all of which you receive plenty of training for. There’s a section attack, stretcher carry of a wounded soldier, obstacle course (I think the obs course is about 800m long from memory) followed by a dam crossing (bloody FREEZING in winter!), bayonet assault course, and another 6km forced march that ends at the range.

From there, you get a short break to clean your weapons and maybe get a quick drink – and if you’re lucky, a bacon and egg roll – and then you move into the Falling Plate shoot. The shoot is a section, team challenge. There are ten small, square, white plates at 100m and as a section you have to shoot them all down. You lose points for every round you shoot, so there’s a bit of tactics involved. Your section commander will tell you the best way for your section to finish with the least amount of shots fired.

And after that, you’re done. It takes the better part of the day, and pretty much the entire Challenge is recorded and you can buy a copy for prosterity. It’s fun to go back and have a look a few years later and see how you went.

The Challenge occurs only about a week before the end of training. Once it’s done, all that’s left (and again, I’m only going by my memory of what happened 20+ years ago) is your final room/building inspection and then your march-out parade which takes a few days of practice to get right. Then it’s BBQ and beers with your family and it’s all over.

Another search term I’ve seen relates to the bathrooms, but I’ll give you a rundown of the accommodation at Kapooka. Recruits are accommodated with their Platoon – the group of people you’ll do your training with. These days, as far as I know, there are males and females in the same platoons – although when I went through, the females had there own area.

The rooms hold four, but in two groups of two. As you enter the room, there is a partition that divides the rooms into two. So there are two of you on the left and two on the right. You get a single bed (no bunks), a small desk and a wardrobe. Your bed is probably about 2m away from your room mate.

Morning routine is pretty strict. You get called into the hallway where they call the role and make sure everyone’s still there. In my day, you had to come out with a sheet over your shoulder to prove you slept in your bed. Once role call is done, you have 15 minutes to make your beds, shave and dress. And trust me, by the end of training, you’ll get all that done with time to spare.

It takes two people to make a bed at Kapooka. It’s true that your CPL will check you have made your bed properly by dropping a pen on it and making sure it bounces. Also, all of your folds need to be perfect and at the exact measurements. You’ll know if you get it wrong, because when you get back from breakfast, you’ll think you walked into the wrong room. Who lives here, and just leaves their sheets on the floor and their pillow in the hallway? Oh, crap!

The bathrooms have two lines of sinks for shaving and making yourself pretty. You get time AFTER breakfast to brush your teeth. One one side of the bathroom is toilets and on the other is showers. The showers are what I would call “semi closed” – individual shower cubicles but without a door. But with integrated Platoons now, this could all be different.

So you do get a little privacy while in the shower, but not a whole lot. Generally, you shower at night, because that’s when you get the most time to yourself. Training used to finish around 2100h (that’s 9pm) and you had an hour to shower, clean your weapon (again), maybe write a letter home and get into bed. Lights out strictly at 2200h.

There are times when it seems you just don’t get enough time to get things done. I remember times coming back from PT when we were only given 10 minutes for the entire Platoon to get showered and back into uniform. Privacy in the showers goes out the window there, because if you’re in there for more than about 2 minutes, the next guy is standing there naked yelling at you to hurry up!

So I hope that answers the latest round of queries. Remember to leave me a comment if you have a question you can’t find an answer to. And I’ll remind you that your comment isn’t immediately made public, so if your question is a little embarassing, then you can leave me an e-mail address and I can reply to you personally. If not, I can just do another post like this one, so nobody will know who asked the question.

More about Kapooka

Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of you using search terms that indicate you’re after more info on what it’s like at Kapooka. It’s also the series of posts that have generated the most comments and questions from my readers. Just keep in mind that if there’s something specific you want to know, leave a comment about it and I’ll provide a response.

You probably need to keep in mind that I went through Kapooka in 1990. I was 17 years old and had spent about three years in the Army Cadets before I joined up. I thought I knew what I was in for, but I got a rude shock. While I’m sure that what you’re about to read is going to be similar to what they do now, the big differences are going to be about how recruits are treated. Things were a bit rough 20+ years ago.

I enlisted in South Australia, so a few days after my enlistment ceremony, we boarded a train and headed off to Melbourne. From there, we boarded a bus and took the very long drive to Kapooka. We arrived at some ridiculously late hour and eventually came to a stop at HQ.

I will never forget that a Corporal (CPL) got on the bus and started yelling at us. And I tell people that the yelling didn’t stop for 12 weeks! That’s obviously not true. It’s not possible to be yelled at for three months. After all, the CPLs have to sleep at some point, don’t they?

From memory, our platoon was finally assembled on a Wednesday or Thursday, which brought “pre week” to a start. For the next few days we were allocated a bedspace, issued with all our kit including uniforms, had our first haircut (a number 1 all over -SEXY!!) and learned the basics of marching around.

And then we started training. Thankfully, my mind has blanked out alot of the detail. I recall a lot of yelling, alot of getting in trouble, and best of all alot of fun. The point of Kapooka is to break your platoon down from being 30-ish individuals and rebuild you up as one, cohesive team.

By the time you leave Kapooka, you start to realise that not everything is about you. ESPECIALLY at Physical Training (PT). I’ve never been an athlete, but when I left Kapooka I was the fittest I’ve ever been. I did a small amount of training before joining, but it wasn’t enough.

They build you up though. They do understand that not everyone has a good level of fitness, but there’s no easy way to GET fit – except to exercise. And geez, do you exercise. We did it EVERY DAY. And none of this half hour session. All of our PT sessions were 80 minutes. Defence loves 40 minute lessons, so everything is either 40 minutes or 80 minutes.

You learn simple stuff like how to run, how to do push ups and sit ups, how to run, how to do chin ups and dips, how to run, how to walk huge distances carrying your pack, how to run, how to climb a rope, how to swim, how to do the obstacle course and then…..how to run.

The worst PT sessions we did was when the PT Instructors (PTIs) would take us for a run through the hills. We would be running along and when we came to a fork in the road, they would askUS which way to go. I’m pretty sure there’s no right answer at all, but those runs were about 10km long.

Naturally, Kapooka isn’t all about getting you fit. You need to learn how to be a soldier. They start by teaching you the basics – and boy, do I mean basics. We got taught how to iron our uniforms, how to make our beds and how to lay out our wardrobes. It takes two people to make a bed the Army way, and if we didn’t get it right, our bed went out the window. And I’m not kidding about that – if you screwed up, you would expect to come back from breakfast and see your mattress, sheets and pillow laying on the ground outside the building.

You also learn how to do drill, how to read a map and navigate with it. You learn how to live in the field, how to do first aid, how to use a radio and some of the “admin” stuff about the Army – like who to salute and who to call Sir. And of course the other thing you learn is weapons.

I use the term “weapons” because we don’t call them guns. A “gun” is what they use in Artillery to really f**k with someone’s day. A handgun is generally called a pistol, while a “long gun” is referred to as a weapon – unless it’s a 7.62mm section weapon, in which case it’s a “machine gun”. Although we do call that a “gun” for short.

The beauty of the Army is that you learn more about weapons than how to shoot. You start with all the theory, known as Characteristics and Tabulated Data. You learn about the weight, size and capability of the weapon before you ever get your hands on it. You then learn how to “clear” a weapon (how to make sure it’s not loaded) and how to handle it safely.

Then you move on to stripping it down and putting it together again (aka “strip and assemble”). You learn how to clean it and how a weapon works. They teach you about rifling and the cycle of operations, where you learn about what happens inside the weapon every time you pull the trigger.

THEN you go through the process of learning how to load the weapon and proceed through the various “degrees of weapon readiness”, eventually unloading again. Once you get all that sorted, you move on to Immediate Actions (IAs). EVERYTHING is abbreviated in Defence, if you haven’t worked that out already.

IAs are the steps you go through when your firing the weapon and it stops. You need to learn to inspect the weapon, diagnose the problem instantly and then resolve it so that you can continue shooting. Most weapons work in a very similar way, so once you learn the basics, it all comes pretty easily.

Once you’ve got ALL of that sorted, you get to go to the range and shoot. So you can see that we’re not taught to be renegades. The training is actually quite strict, and there is NO room for failure. Once you put an automatic weapon in the hands of a 17 year old, you need to be 100% certain they’re not going to kill themselves, or worse – kill someone else. If you get things wrong once you start using live ammo, the CPLs are swift and severe in handing out punishment.

And that’s really about it. The days seem to go forever – starting at 0600h and finishing at 2200h. At various stages through training, you get to sit in the classroom and do some theory lessons, but it’s hard to stay awake. For the first four weeks of my training, we got no spare time at all. Training would finish at around 2130h and then we had 30 minutes to shower, change out of our uniforms and get into bed. If we were quick, we had time to write a letter or chat with our mates, but there wasn’t much time for that.

At the end of the 4th week, we were taken into town (Wagga Wagga) and let loose for a couple of hours. Pretty much everyone aimed straight for some junk food or a beer. Following that trip, we got time off on the weekends (although we weren’t allowed to leave the base) until later in training, when we were given weekend leave unless we screwed up during the week.

At the end of training, you participate in what’s known as a March Out Parade. About 99.4% of your training is complete, and if you’re lucky, everyone who was there at the start will still be there at the end. You will get a great sense of mateship by the time you finish training. You feel like you’ve all been to hell and back together.

Your parents are allowed to come to Kapooka and watch the parade, which is pretty standard as far as military parades go. But you’ll be all dressed up in your ceremonial uniforms and probably carrying weapons. After the parade, the families are taken to the on-base club where there’s a meal of some description. In my day, it was a BBQ, but I have no idea what they do these days.

The recruits go back to their rooms to change out of their uniforms and get a quick “Behave yourselves” speech from the CPLs before being allowed to join your families for some relaxed socialising and a few drinks. In my day, we were also allowed off base that night, so most of us got to go into town with our families for a decent dinner and a few too many drinks.

A few days later, everyone starts to go their separate ways – heading off to their IET courses. Some will stay at Kapooka for a while until their courses start, while other luckier ones might be allowed to go home on leave for a week or so – but only if ther’s a HUGE wait until their IET course starts.

And that’s that. Are there any final questions or doubtful points? That’s a phrase you will get to know all too well once you get there.

And to respond to one recurring search term I see – there is no “not liking Kapooka”. The army is not a TAFE course. If you get there and decide you don’t like it – tough. You will NOT be allowed to leave just because you don’t like it. The only way you leave Kapooka is by completing your training or being so significantly injured that you can’t stay in the Army. So you really need to make sure that this is what you want to do before you leave.

RAINF IET

Thanks to everyone for posting questions about joining the Army, and more specifically for those who have been using the word “Infantry” in their search terms. Following a recent question I was sent, I thought I’d give out some info about the RAINF IET course. For those who haven’t been playing along, that stands for Royal Australian INFantry Initial Employment Training. Basically, learning to be an Infantry soldier after basic training in Australia.

One of the big questions people seem to want to know is what happens IMMEDIATELY after you finish basic training at Kapooka. There’s not really a single answer to this, because it depends on the planets aligning. If your IET course is due to start within a week or two, you will probably be shipped off to wherever you’ll be doing that training.

If there’s a bigger gap, then you will probably stay at Kapooka, being given some random tasks to carry out. And if you’re SUPER DUPER lucky, you might get to take some leave – but I wouldn’t count on it.

But let’s talk about those people brave enough to join RAINF. You’ll be shipped off to sunny Singleton (aka Singo), where you’ll undergo 67 days of training. The course is broken into two modules (known as Mods in the Army). Mod 1 is “Basic Infantry Skills” while Mod 2 is “War Fighting Skills”.

Mod 1 consists of 345 periods of 40 minutes duration, with the days being 13 periods long. Notice I didn’t say “lessons”, because not all of the periods are lessons. Some will be allocated to assessments, some to retraining, some to PT and so forth.

During Mod 1, you’ll learn all sorts of great stuff like how to use weapons. Everything from the Steyr through to the 5.56mm Minimi, 7.62mm MAG 58 (I think), hand grenades, smoke grenades, flares and the Claymore mine. You’ll learn how to navigate (with map and compass), use radios and use night vision goggles. You’ll also learn about the routine and skills you need to live like an Infantryman in the field.

Mod 2 is 203 periods with 13 periods per day.

During Mod 2, you’ll learn to conduct things like patrols up to Platoon level, ambushes, offensive and defensive operations, as well as urban combat including close quarter fighting (with weapons) and building clearances.

Naturally, there’s also a fitness element involved. You’ll get naturally fit to begin with, thanks to all the running around and weight carrying you’ll be doing. One of the big ones is the obstacle course. They have an AWESOME obstacle course at Singo. Well….it’s awesome to watch – not so sure it would be so awesome to do, especially when you’re carrying weapons.

You’ll do plenty of PT (Physical Training), but it’s not just about running and lifting heavy weights. You’ll start to learn about the important of stretching, warming up and cooling down when you exercise. You’ll learn a heap of different techniques for that, as well as different stretches, what they do and how they help. You’ll even probably have some injured people as you progress, so at PT you’ll get see ‘alternative exercises’ used so that people with an injury can still participate.

With all that exercise, you’ll not only sleep REALLY well at night, but you’ll develop a bit of a love of going to the gym and seeing your body get more awesome, and your fitness improving.

So the big questions are usually: What happens if I get injured at Singo? What happens when I leave Singo? and What if I fail?

If you get injured, you’ll receive free medical treatment to either fix the injury or bring you back to the best you can be. I won’t lie and say that the Army can fix anything. If you fall off a high obstacle and break your legs, you’ll be treated and then most likely discharged. But if that kind of thing happens, you’ll get some kind of payout or even free medical treatment after you leave.

But what they CAN do is eveything from slap a bandaid on it and give you some panadol, to send you off for surgery. So don’t fret. Whatever they break, they will try to fix. Once you have treatment for your injuries, if you can continue with the training, you will. If not, you will either be transferred to a new Corps (ie: a new job) or discharged as I said before.

When you finish IETs, you will be allocated to one of the Battalions. You can look them up on Google to see who they are, what they’re role is and where they’re located. But I don’t know how much influence you will have over where you go. And let’s face it, within a 10 year career, you’ll probably do a posting to most Battalions anyway.

To answer the last question, I would say that you probably can’t just “fail Singo”. You may fail certain elements of the training, and if that’s the case, they will retrain you until you are good enough and then re-assess you. Unless you are totally hopeless at something. But if you can’t pass an element of training AT ALL, you will again either be transferred or discharged. But that’s pretty rare.

If you do really badly at Singo, they may even have you progress through the course and then join up with another group to redo the bits you failed at. Or, they might “back squad” you. That’s when they realise you’re not keeping up, so they remove you from the course you’re on, and slip you into the course that started after you did. You join their group and pick up from where you started to fail. Incidentally, this happens at Kapooka, too.

Aside from learning to be a fine-tuned killing machine, you have to pass two fitness tests: the Basic Fitness Assessment (BFA) and the Combat Fitness Assessment (CFA). The BFA is a series of push-ups, sit-ups and a 2.4km timed run. The CFA involves a Run, Dodge, Jump (RDJ) course and a timed 15km walk with your pack and section weapons.

The BFA standards are “bracketed” by age, so the older you are, the less you have to do. The CFA is a set time no matter how old you are. I’m sure that http://www.defence.gov.au will have links to the BFA and CFA standards if you’re interested, but I reckon that by the time you work your way through Singo, you won’t have any dramas at all.

Getting into red herrings now – let’s say you pass all the Infantry stuff, and in the words of Clint Eastwood, you can “put a round through a flea’s arse at 300m” but can’t manage to pass the BFA or CFA, then one of two things will happen. The CO of the Battalion where you’re destined to go will be informed, and he will decide whether he wants you “as is” or not. If so, he will take control of retraining you until you pass – or kicking you out if you can’t. OR he can say “No”, and then you stay at Singo and they train you until you pass. Or kick you out.

As usual, once Singo is over, you’ll get a posting order for your first Battalion. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! And then, depending on the cycle of the planets, you’ll either go straight there, or maybe take some leave. But the priority will be getting you there and settled in. If you’re married, then shortly after you arrive at the Battalion, you’ll get time to return home and pack up your family, where Defence will move you free-of-charge to your new unit.

So there we go. Lots and lots of info about Singo and what goes on there. Expect it to be full-on for the first few weeks. You will get the occasional weekend off, but you may or may not have drinking privelidges.

Normally, I read through my posts before publishing them. But it’s Friday before a long weekend. I’m exhausted and my post is huge, so if I made typos or missed a word somewhere, then just deal with it. BUT, if my post generated more questions, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll answer as best I can.

I’d also like to point out that any comment you leave won’t automatically appear on the site – it has to be approved by me first. So if need be, feel free to leave me your e-mail address and I can contact you directly, rather than writing a huge post like this. And remember that if you liked this post (or any others for that matter) then tell all your friends about me. I’m trying to grow my audience, so the more people that know about me, the better.