Matt

Matt Adams, the first male guest on School Life Memorable Moments Matter, talks about his high school experience and his journey into the army. He admits that he wasn't much of a student and was more interested in sports and girls. He eventually completed year 11 and 12 later in life. Matt joined the army after playing footy in Clarence. He explains that football was a savior for him and provided a sense of worth and escape from his home life. He joined the army at 17 and went through recruit training and initial employment training before being assigned to an infantry battalion in Brisbane. He describes Brisbane as a big country town and talks about the changes that occurred in the army during the early 90s. After three years, he became a full-time reservist and was posted to Canungra where he learned his trade better. Matt's military career spanned 25 years and he considers all of it to be important. He mentions being featured on the front of Stars and Str Okay here we go. Well hello everybody. I'm very pleased to be able to go into our next episode of School Life Memorable Moments Matter and today we're talking to our first male guest and his name is Matt and I'll speak to him, I'll introduce him in just a moment but I hope you're enjoying this series and finding it useful in your life with the wonderful stories we've had so far. So Matt let me ask you to introduce yourself to the people listening and we'll go on with our conversation. Thanks Greg, thanks for the invite. My name is Matt Adams for those that attended high school rugby high from 1983 to 1986. Straight out I wasn't much of a student. I was more interested in the footy side and obviously the lady side of the schooling attributes. I remember those two attributes but yeah you were always very smartly dressed and your academic record wasn't as bad as you make out. I know that. Yeah mainly level one and level two students at the time. I did pay off school a fair bit which at my own detriment at the time. It wasn't until years later in around about 2008-2007 that I actually completed year 11 and 12 through um I think it might have been Star of the Sea or sorry through Simon Cross in Lismore University. Yeah actually have a school program. Yeah yeah okay. Matt I remember you when you were at school very well and you were a smart, you always wore uniform perfectly and I can remember you were very much involved in the cadet corps and of course I know that you joined the forces you're in the army. Could you tell us about what did you do anything before you joined the army or? No all I did was I attended Rosney for a year and played footy at Clarence in the force. Footy was a bit of a saviour for me especially that early 90s end of 1986 into early 87. That was a bit of a saviour time where I focused on my fitness right and so I could play for Clarence. Yeah you were you were aiming to be in there in the A team. Yeah. I mean uh you you played for the school team and I remember that night just test this see if I'm right on this you were a ruck rover weren't you? Yeah yeah and played on the back line. Yeah that's right and we had quite a good team and I can't remember how successful they were but you know what you might know is that I always had great respect for the coaches and periodically when people got you know a bit off the rails I used to go to the coach rather than go to the individual student and have the school intervene. I'd say well could you talk to him in a particular way like this did football what did it do for you playing football and sport in general you were quite a good runner too I remember. Yeah it's what gave you that a focus on actually I for me was feeling worthy um for for accolades. My home life wasn't all that crashed up um with my dad in and out and my mum was a god bless her soul was a socialitarian so her way or the highway yeah yeah yeah so football and school was a place to go yeah to hide from mum and footy was a saviour that um yeah that it became just the circumstances and your age and so on as a young man that's a critical time or any for any adolescent it's a critical time for them isn't it yeah and and they get to hang on to something I have something like that to hang around your uh you know goals in life yeah so what happened uh after you finished the Rosny? I did actually complete Rosny um due to I went into army recruiting uh end of mid-July got a testing date for I fell on my birthday 11th of August. Hey 11th of August yeah and tested that same day the day I turned 17 um and then just waited just did the testing throughout the day got told basically at the end of the day is now just a waiting game to see when I was actually leaving because I've I passed. Oh you passed the recruiting test and the medical and everything was all in one day yeah so that was uh like just sitting there waiting I was offered a job at Repco through family friends as a u-drawer um but then they were pulling their job open for me um until you did until you got it. I've been waiting up to 12 months. Yeah oh really okay and then uh mid-October I got the letter to say that I was leaving in the November. Your decision to go and do that test the day you did and uh and be successful um did the your um work or membership of the school cadet corps have any bearing on it or not? It gave me a little bit of insight into recruit training but we were told that um don't tell people don't tell the instructors that you were an ex-cadet because they'll pretty much ride you. Oh that's good advice I think. Yeah yeah I kept that one quiet um yeah but I could already march I could do turns um so yeah initial training for me was reasonably easy. Yeah could I just go back to the school cadets though I can remember that like we were lucky enough to have a staff member and he was a social worker who'd yeah at the uh the social worker was the like commander of the cadets if you like or the main officer. Did he did you know him very well or did he influence on you? Yeah I've had sessions with him in his professional role. Right. Um I was recommended to see the the naughty kid's doctor by Don Killey as I would call it. Yeah yeah. Behavioral issues. Yeah. Don had already done I think 23 years in the regular army. Yeah. Um and he was a fair influence into actually what I wanted to do within army because I didn't really know to me it was just join and you just did whatever you okay whereas you're actually allocated to a corps right with a big armored corps to drive tanks or infantry and I spent my time in infantry. How did that evolve or you know just run us down about what happened when you got past the initial training you did you have to get used to the army culture or something like that? I was even though I was ill just lived at school and in general life um when I was in I was always trying to do the right thing um I just and wasn't a goody two shoes or anything but no I just tried to keep my nose clean. Yeah. Especially when you're first joined you do your recruit training and then do initial employment training which is another 12 weeks for whatever job role you're going into and then you then go to your unit. I went to an infantry battalion placed in Brisbane. Right. Whereas Brisbane was the biggest place I've ever been because I told that. Yeah well that that itself is an interesting thing isn't it? Joining the army was the first time I actually went to state. Yeah. What was it really? Yeah. Yeah so you know what are your memories of that time? Brisbane was um when I look back at it was like a big country town. Yeah. It was if I'd be big to me. Yeah. It was just a casual sort of thing most of the my peers were in their mid to late 20s we were the first new batch of march-ins that the unit had in about three years. Right. So you're looking at guys that were yeah mid-20s already at that stage and some older guys it was the 80s the end of the 80s and a lot of guys used to be private for six or seven years before they got promoted to land school. Right. And then things started to change into the into the early 90s and stuff like that. Tell me uh about um you know as you matured or not matured is the wrong word but as you got used to the army and you'd been in your unit how long would you be posted there for that? Um for a private you could be with anywhere up to about 10 years. You could be in the one unit but the unit would move around? No the unit would stay in place. Oh right. Yeah you you're the one that moved um I moved at the three year mark because I our unit was um the government of the day brought in a new scheme where it was called the ready reserve where you you joined you did 12 months full-time. Right. And then you came back for three years back and forth to the unit. Oh right. As a basically as a full-time reservist. Oh right. So I saw the writing on the wall early and thought well I'd rather go somewhere where I'd like to go and at the time Townsville wasn't all that viable as far as I was concerned. No. Um so I asked to go down to Canumbra out of the Gold Coast. Right. Where I was which was my second posting where I played um in the enemy platoon and we did demonstrations. Oh right. Yeah military tactics and all that sort of stuff. Yeah. Yeah and that was a place where that was almost that was like being um a chess piece uh in tactics and you learned so much. Yeah. Because you were the pawns. Ah. You were the ones moving around on the board sort of thing. Ah I see. And so that's the way I looked at it. Yeah. And I learned a fair bit. I learned basically I learned my trade better there than what I did when I was in the battalion because it was just in the battalion it was just a case of go here do this. Yeah you've been told what to do. Whereas the other the next year there was more leeway to do things and there was. Right. Yeah. It was all dog trial. Right. Yeah. Okay. Now through you and I don't want to dwell on your military career but it's been a large slice of your life uh I would think that would that be right? Yeah 25 years. Yeah. I'm going to ask you some questions about that that are a sort of thing that um a civilian like me might like to know um but I'll come back to that and it's really it's about Anzac Day I want to speak to you a little later on and then not not in any depth but I'll just ask your view on it um but what were some of the highlights of that career would you say for you? For me? That were important to you? You could say all of it was. Yeah yeah a lot of it was a lot of things. Yeah. Some important some a lot of some of the highlights were the little things. Yes. A lot of the highlights were the big things. Now I was I featured on the front of um Stars and Stripes which is a an American propaganda magazine that they have in service and I appeared on the front of that um in Iraq when I served in Iraq. Okay. Just with the with the captured Storch allies there because I we've been loading up some wounded Americans and stuff like that. Right. Um and I happened to be just picked up the wrong end and got killed in blood and stuff. Oh. Yeah so that picture was one of them. There was my time in uh PNG in New Guinea where we ran training as part of a training team. Yeah well it's still relevant today isn't it? Yeah uh Solomon Islands was another one where um as part of a training team. Yeah. Uh East Timor in 1999. Right. That was that was probably the highlight of the career at that stage. Yeah. Um I happened to be in Darwin then at a meeting but I saw more naval ships I didn't think we had that many and the soldiers at least there was quite an operation and you know it was more like imagining something from the Vietnam days than there being Americans. That was an American movement. I was I was a member of the 2nd Battalion at the time. Oh right. We were the first ones into the security airfield and moved into Dili on foot. Yeah. Yeah. What what was the um actual reception like when you got there? Um there wasn't much of a reception because a lot of people had fled. They'd gone yeah. The your main problem were the militia. You had Indonesians there as well still in the city. Right. That were friendly but not so friendly. Right. One of those funny things where I was always a bit of a bowel bird when it came to little souvenirs. Yeah. Uh came across the flag I had an Indonesian flag on it and I started pulling it down by this bit of rope and um like I said we'd said oh we've got a problem. I look around there's probably about 20 Indonesians. 20 Indonesian soldiers standing there. Oh. So I kept on pulling it down, rolled it up, put it on my arm, saluted them and walked off. Did you really? They didn't know what to do because we were fully armed. Yeah. They didn't really know what to do but they started to raise guns but because we. It didn't happen. Yeah we just. Yeah. Oh that's tremendously interesting. I mean a big move away from Tassie and then finding Brisbane's your finest place and you go you mention a couple of names like that. You you've done a lot of service and uh I mean personally I think we all should be grateful to every serviceman we see and for me to have you here talking to us is it's really a terrific thing and so yeah thank you I I that's that's good. I know that uh when I've spoken to you recently uh you said I'll be free every day next week except for Thursday because it was Anzac Day and uh I I have always felt that Anzac Day is really an important day probably controversially in my mind more important than Australia Day in a way and uh and I know it's very important to anyone that's served and for other people who've got relatives who served it's a very important day but what's your Anzac Day like? Um. Is it an occasion where you meet your old mates or? There's not really a great deal of my old mates that live in Hobart. Ah. There's a couple of people that I served under who were higher rank than what I was. Um. One's living down at Dava. One of my old soldiers from the 1st Battalion he lives up at Westbury. Oh right. Um. So it's more of a solemn sort of date. I mean I go on with a normal service and then pretty much I might I was going to head off to Leonard Valley this year but I didn't end up going. I was just like oh I might just go home and I did like to watch the stuff on TV. Yes it's very good. It's very good. The fellow that commentates for the ABC here in Hobart. Yeah. Phil Pike. Yeah. Um. He's actually we're actually friends um and he's because we actually bought his old farmhouse. Right. So he tried to get me to come along and do some things but to me it's just a day of if there was people to drink with I'd go drinking. Right. Um. Yeah. I just try to keep it as a bit of a calm day for you. Yeah. And look let's face it we're in the world today you know time is a very short commodity from everyone you know and to have that I know what you're saying that a day where you yeah you don't do much you you but the mind is working on people and places that you've been and things you've had to do probably. Yeah. And just thinking of you do think on Anzac Day a lot of your pastor. I remember just last night or yesterday afternoon I got a message saying that a bloke that I knew had gone into hospital in burning. Yeah. I didn't even know he's in burning. Right. And then last time I got a message about that last 10 to say that he passed. Ah. Now this is this was a guy I've been in the battalion about three or four days and we were put on the guard guard that night where you roam the area sort of. Yeah. Um. And he just said you know it's Craig Butler he just said any of you kids because he told me everyone kids any of you kids Tasmania and I just put my hand up he goes oh you're on phone picket tonight so you don't have to walk around in the cold. So this was my first meeting with this Craig Butler. Yeah. Sitting on a phone picket with him. Yeah. I thought the others were going outside to walk around then. Oh I see what you mean yeah phone picket. Oh okay you were warm. Good that's very good. Yeah. That was a first memory. Yeah. And I hadn't actually I'd forgotten all about him because you do forget about people. Oh yes. Because I moved around I served in battalion in Brisbane an independent rifle company in Canumbra battalion in Townsville then I actually had a stint in defence recruiting in Brisbane. Right. Um and then I was certainly on the Gold Coast where I did defence recruiting. Right. I then spent um on promotion to sergeant I spent time in an army reserve unit at 20 heads. Oh wow. In a one man depot. Yeah. My boss an hour away. Oh. So it was just me in a depot with. Yeah. Plenty of reservists. Oh yeah yeah. Um I then had time in the in the battalion in Townsville again. I then went to salt pioneer section where I taught demolitions and watermanship um in Sydney. I then got sent to as an instructor on a promotion course for corporal. I then went the next posting for promotion course as an instructor for sergeant and then trained development and then back to an army reserve unit. Okay. So all those postings in that 25 years. Yeah. That's a lot of movement. Yeah. Yeah I know we um you know I've experienced the children of uh servicemen being in and out of schools you know and they travel a lot and that includes schools overseas. Uh Matt um having talked to you about your service career and uh you know your early life and coming into the army it leads me to look at today kids of today what do you think about the world they're going into? Oh where do you start? Well that's that's that's that's a hard question isn't it? Yeah. It's a big question. And why and what what is the there's no correct answer. No of course not. Well you somebody with your experience would have a bit of advice you'd tell them. Besides trying to keep your nose clean and don't smoke cigarettes because they're bad for you. Yeah well that's important advice. You have to look at you've got to do your own thing don't go with what everyone else is doing because one of the things that flashed back to the mid 80s and high school was watching people start to go towards the naughty side you know naughtier than normal. Yeah yeah. Not so much behavior but actions like stealing from the shop. Yeah. And living in Rokeby that was a big thing people used to steal from the shop. Right yeah. Another one was when the and I remember this the cordial truck used to pull into the shop kids would jump out of bushes and steal from the back of the truck. Now this is it sounds like it's harmless at the time but those are things that then set you up for bigger and bigger and worse things to go and steal. Get away with the bottle of cordial. Well maybe I can get away with something bigger. Yeah you've really got to look at do what you think is best for you. But you've got to look at it in a way we used to say you know would this pass the 60 minutes test. Yeah. Do you want to appear on 60 minutes for this this and this. Being famous for something's not right. Yeah that's quite a good time. It's hard to give advice on that sort of thing. It was because I looked at things differently to others. I just went that's wrong I'm not anticipating that. No. I don't want to do that. Yeah. I want to actually try and do the right thing. Yeah I mean as a parent I think that's what you want your kids to be like so your mother's non-democratic I bring you up probably had a bit to do with that wouldn't it. Yeah because you didn't want to you know Eddie Murphy talks about the shoe. Yeah. For those that know the Eddie Murphy track about you know your mum could throw the shoe. Oh yes yes the shoe would come. Yeah that's how mum lived. Yeah. Like that was and I spoke with my auntie when my mother and a couple of months two months ago and she was younger than my mother and she actually said that mum said when we moved into Rugby in the early 70s that I'm not going to have my kids running around the street. No. And doing naughty stuff. Yeah. That came from somewhere and that's probably where it is coming from. Yeah. What would you say to her now if you could talk to her? I would probably say I made it. I made it I think. I think she'd be really proud. My brother's actually a nurse. Lee. Yeah. Lee's a nurse. His wife is the head of nursing for trauma in the emergency room for nuances in general. Oh wow. Yeah so he's done quite well for himself. Yeah. A lot of people said well it would never amount to anything because of where we came from and you know and the sort of family we grew up in well. Yeah. For those that didn't know my dad was a drunk anyway. Right. He never said. Mum called him an alcoholic one night and he said I'm not an alcoholic I'm just a drunk. Yeah. So that was one of the things that stuck with me. Yeah. No use labelling people. No. Unless there's a real label to be given out. Well absolutely. You're absolutely right. As an educator I would really abhor labels on anyone at any time. You know even in my life now. Yeah. Yeah. I think what you just said though is to say I made it to your mum who's passed away obviously and is I think it's a wonderful compliment to her but also to you for following through with you know eventually getting to what you wanted to do following through with it and having a successful career. Yeah. Yeah. I tried to sort out my life. I tried to do the right. You did it very well. I was married for 20 years the first time. Right. I've only had one child. He's turning 30 this year. Oh great. He took the public servant test a couple of years ago and was offered pretty much everything for federal and he chose that affairs as his job. So he works with that affairs. And I asked him, I said mate you know the choice of anything was better paying the government roles. Yeah. He said, oh you know you've had a bit of influence on me so I'll try and do the right thing for you. That's very good and it is a compliment to you. Look I think we've really done very well with this conversation. Is there anything else you wanted to say at all? Yeah just some of the teachers I remember. Obviously yourself Greg. Yeah. Mr. Butterworth. Yeah. Greg Frown. Yeah. At PE. Yeah. Jeff Towns. Not that I had Jeff Towns for any lessons but he always asked how I was and he tried to get me into the gym. That's it. He wanted me to get into the weight. Yeah. But always my answer to him was oh you haven't got enough weight so you're going to need a lift. But he was a bit of an influence. Obviously Eddie was up there. Yes. Was it Tony Gray? Yeah Tony. Tony Gray who I had for a couple years as the home teacher. Yeah. Mr. C. and Mr. D. Hawkins. Yeah. They were a lot of influence. Yeah. And I do remember them. Oh that's great. That's really good. That I think Matt is a terrific place to finish on and with a list of teachers. But then there's one there that didn't teach you but he asked you how are you. And I think one of the key things for any young person listening to this who's going to become a teacher. Make a connection with a student by knowing their name or smiling at them and talking to them. Makes a big difference. It's a small thing but a big effect. So thanks for your time Matt. I really appreciate it. And for those that are listening the episode will come on if in within a week or two and I'll let you know exactly when this particular episode will come about. Thank you very much for listening everybody. And again thanks to Matt.