It's Time for a Fundamental Course Correction within the Australian Veteran Community

The Australian Veteran Community today requires a fundamental course correction. While my blunt assessment may seem harsh, it aims to highlight that we do ourselves no favours by sliding toward mediocrity or embracing victimhood as David Ballantyne so aptly describes in his post of 28 Feb 25. I will add one more, we must stop passively accepting circumstances without standing up and being counted.?

Our veteran brand should embody the qualities that all Australians immediately recognise as truly “veteran”; self-awareness, integrity, unwavering moral principles, truthfulness, sacrifice, and genuine character, along with a clear sense of direction and purpose in everything we do. If these ideals echo the values that are used to describe us on Anzac Day and Remembrance Day, that is exactly the point.

Where are our contemporary equivalents of Albert Jacka, Sister Rachael Pratt, Pompey Elliott, John Monash, Roden Cutler, Weary Dunlop, Vivian Bullwinkel, Nancy Wake, Digger James, and Bruce Ruxton? These icons, if they were here today, would be heartbroken to see our community fragmented.?A once united and formidable force now torn apart by those who revel in misery. We need leaders who will unite us, who truly lead and will not be submissive, and who are ready to stand and represent our collective strength.

If you want to get ahead in life, you must lead. You must turn your weaknesses into strengths. You must take calculated risks and inspire others to thrive alongside you. You must be capable of robust debate without taking offense. You must care for others and give back to society because not everyone is capable to or wants to lead from the front.?

The Australian Veteran Community requires a fundamental course correction so our leaders, and all veterans and their families have a guiding hand in making our own destiny. Had we nurtured this culture of genuine and authentic leadership, we might have prevented the situation where the Government has just largely disregarded the vital recommendations of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, where it started on its own solution over 24 months before the Final Report, and implemented legislation without consultation. These actions only deepen the challenges our community faces.

To quote David Ballantyne again, no one owes us a fair go just because we served. It is up to those among us who can and do lead.?We must step out from behind social media to stand in the spotlight and promote a culture built on the very principles ingrained in our training.?Many people who have contributed to or liked the original post that motivated this, have those characteristics.?

A fundamental course correction. Stand together as a united veteran community, cast off those who have falsely represented us and step forward onto a positive path that is well planned, out in the open and not all on social media Many with the personal attributes have followed and commented upon David Ballantyne's original article. The veteran brand can return, former, more professional and with weaponised resilience. (Final two words courtesy of Sian Ballantyne and Greg Whitehouse .

These views are my personal views and not that of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans' Association.

Ian Lindgren

Footnotes - A Couple of Names Some Might Not Know

Major General Harold Edward 'Pompey' Elliott, CB, CMG, DSO, DCM

"Pompey" Elliott was a Boer War veteran. His men called him Pompey after the footballer Fred “Pompey” Elliott, Carlton’s 1908 premiership captain. He was known as an inspirational leader whose outspoken manner and criticisms of his colleagues and their decision-making, and of the way that some men were selected for awards over others, led at times to clashes with his superiors. After WW1 he was involved in the affairs of returned soldiers and was chiefly responsible for redrafting the constitution of the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia. Elliott also played an important part in the 1923 Victorian police strike, making a call for members of the AIF to come to the town hall and sign up as special constables alongside General Sir John Monash. When Australian War Memorial founder Charles Bean discovered that Elliott had died as a result of his mantal health injuries during the war, he wrote:

So Pompey Elliott is gone! … The old soldier has laid down his arms …It is not the first time that he has gone out alone into no man’s land. We know this about Pompey; he goes out as a soldier, utterly unafraid … History will do him an injustice if it does not hand him down to posterity as – with very few peers – one of the outstanding and most lovable characters of the AIF.

Sister Rachael Pratt, MM

Sister Rachael Pratt, MM n May 1915 enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service and embarked later that same month for Lemnos as a staff nurse with 3 Australian General Hospital where she cared for the wounded from Gallipoli. Following a period in Britain, Pratt was transferred to France in May 1917 and attached to No1 Australian Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul.

At 3.40 am on the night of 3-4 July, Pratt was on duty attending to a patient when a bomb dropped and exploded close to the tent. Despite suffering serious penetrating shrapnel wounds in the right shoulder and lung she continued to attend to her patient. It was reported that 'throughout the whole proceeding she exhibited the utmost coolness and bravery, and by so doing was a conspicuous example to the patients and others, whose confidence was thereby absolutely maintained.'

Pratt eventually returned to Australia on 24 October 1918. Her war experiences had a devastating effect on her post war life. She suffered from chronic bronchitis and ongoing mental health issues.

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