Martin and Olivia Garrett

Martin Garrett was just 17 years old when he joined the Royal Australian Navy as a radio operator in August 1990.

“It all happened very quickly,” he said. “I’d just finished Year 12 in Murray Bridge, South Australia, and it was a bit of a shock.

“I was never a kid that was right into the military or anything; it just sort of happened that way. I wasn’t even 17 and a half yet.

“I didn’t have a military bone in my body until I actually joined up, but I really enjoyed the job, and the mateship. There were a lot of good times, and I really enjoyed being at sea.”

He deployed to Iraq in 2003, and again in 2009.

“I was on Kanimbla then, and we were sent up there as the command ship,” he said.

“There was a lot of backlash against [Prime Minister] John Howard at the time for sending anyone up there, and there were anti-war protesters on the wharf when we were sailing. It was pretty hard, because we were all trying to say goodbye to our families at the time, and it was pretty horrible – but we all knew we were doing the right thing.

“Iraq itself was pretty tough. Everyone was working long hours, and it was a bit of an unknown. One day, we were all going to a certain waterway, and there were mines being exploded up ahead of us.

“We were all just lying there, listening to these things go off. We were trusting those who were ahead of us – mine hunters, detonating them. It was just the thought that if one of those had gone off underneath us, it would have been pretty devastating. Everyone was pretty tense, and everyone was just silent.”

He will never forget the night when coalition forces began bombing the Iraqi capital.

“One of the nights we were over there was actually when they started the bombing in Baghdad,” he said.

“We were outside, watching as the Americans, and the Brits, and the Australians, were just firing missiles into Baghdad, and that’s tough. It’s a tough situation when you know that it’s not just military bases that get hit, and you know that there are casualties.

“It’s pretty hard to watch that; you know that they are doing the right thing, but it’s tough – you are so far removed, but you know what’s happening down there.”

He had previously deployed to East Timor as part of the Australian-led Interfet peacekeeping taskforce in 1999.

“I was in Anzac at the time,” he said. “We were there as Indonesia was pulling out of East Timor and it was actually a bit hectic for the first few days. One of the Indonesian warships actually trained their guns onto one of the other ships that was up there with us – HMAS Success – so we went to action stations, and put ourselves between the two ships, and prepared for anything.

“Nothing happened, fortunately, but we were there for two or three weeks sending replenishments ashore in support of the army; they were the guys on the ground doing the hard yards.”

As a younger veteran who spent 23 years in the navy, he believes it’s important for the Australian War Memorial to tell the stories of modern conflicts and the sacrifices that serving men and women continue to make today. His partner Erin Gilbert is a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, and they look forward to the day when they can take their daughters, Olivia and Scout, through the new expanded galleries at the Memorial.

“I think it’s really good,” he said. “Especially with young kids – they don’t really understand it, so to be able to show them what we did, and be able to say, ‘This is what your granddad did, or your great-granddad did, and this is what other Australians have done,’ is really important.

“It’s important for them to know about it, and I think that all schools should come to the Memorial, and that everyone should be educated on what’s there.”

Today, Martin continues to serve with the reserves and visits the Memorial whenever he can. To him, the Memorial is a special place; a place to reflect and to remember those who have served and continue to serve.

“Whenever I go there, I find it’s pretty emotional,” he said.

“Just all the history, and the deaths, and the sacrifices that people have made; you just look at the sheer numbers of people that died in the world wars, and it’s pretty humbling.

“I think for most serving people, and current people, we don’t believe we have done a lot compared to what people in Vietnam and the two world wars went through. But I think it’s important; it continues on the story, and whilst there might not have been a lot of people dying, there are still people dying, and everyone has sacrificed something, whether it’s going away from loved ones for six, seven, eight months, or being injured.

“I’m proud of what I did, and I’m glad that I was in the Navy.”