Biography to be provided. … Michael Molkentin …

Lieutenant Daniel R Green was a mobilised US Navy Reservist working as the ISAF Joint Command liaison office to the US Embassy’s Office of Interagency Provincial Affairs in Kabul, Afghanistan from 2009–10. He previously served as the US Department of State representative to the Tarin Kot Provincial Reconstruction Team in Uruzgan Province, Afghanistan in 2005–06 and as a Tribal and Leadership Engagement Officer with the US Navy in Fallujah, Iraq in 2007. The views expressed in the article are the author’s …

Abstract One of the enduring challenges of the war in Afghanistan has been the synchronised delivery of sustained population protection with robust good governance, development, and reconstruction efforts. Beginning in 2009, the United States began to send additional resources to Afghanistan in order to adopt a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy. Significant efforts were made to better organise US and NATO military forces to implement this strategy and the US Embassy also sought to better …

Captain Matt Proud enlisted into the Army in January 2003. In 2004 he attended the Australian Defence Force Academy and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts (Management and Geography) in 2006. Upon graduation from the Royal Military College – Duntroon in 2007 he was posted to the 1st Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment and was deployed to Afghanistan with Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force – 2. He is currently the Second in Command of the South Queensland Wing of the Warrant Officer and Non-Commissioned …

Abstract This article examines the key role that junior commanders and their soldiers must play in the execution of force concepts necessitated by the emergence of modern counterinsurgency warfare. Now more than ever, platoon teams and sections have the moral, legal and strategic imperative to analyse and apply force concepts at a rate and magnitude equal to, if not in excess of, their higher command. This article discusses approaches to this increased pressure by drawing on experiences from platoon teams …

Lieutenant Colonel Sean L’Estrange is an Infantry officer who recently served as a Directing Staff member at the Australian Command and Staff College – Canberra (2009–10). He is a graduate of the Joint Australian Command and Staff College (2006) and is a former Commanding Officer of 16RWAR (2007–08). His overseas service includes a Commonwealth Attachment to the British Army (1992) and Active Service as the JTF633-A Operations Analyst deployed to Tarin Kot, Afghanistan, in direct support of MRTF-2 and …

Abstract This article identifies the opportunity, if not the necessity, for the Australian Defence College to offer a larger pool of mid-ranking Army officers a mission-focused part-time ACSC program. To do this the article will assesses one of the current part-time ACSC options, the Army Reserve ACSC course (ACSC(R)), against its ability to build and develop the skills required of a mid-ranking ‘mission-focused’ officer. This analysis is Army focused; however, the concepts are applicable to a tri-service …

Major Michael Reade is an Associate Professor of anaesthetics and intensive care medicine at the Austin Hospital and the University of Melbourne. He joined Sydney University Regiment in 1989, completed the First Appointment Course and was commissioned as a general service officer. After medical qualification, he served as RMO of UNSWR and SUR, on exchange with 144 Parachute Medical Squadron in London and the 2nd Armoured Division in Texas and California, and as a specialist medical officer with 1HSB and …

Abstract The Australian Defence Force has a need for procedural medical specialists in garrison healthcare, on major exercises and on operations. Employing such specialists in the full-time component of the ADF has proved largely impossible, leading to reliance on civilian contractors. However, the ADF Reserves include many procedural medical specialists who could potentially perform this work. Underemployment of the Reserves is a costly lost opportunity. This article proposes a method of better matching …

Signalman Russell Larner joined the GRES in January 2004 and, after postings as a clerk with the 4th Combat Engineer Regiment and 4th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (Commando), he joined the ARA in January 2006 as an Operator Specialist Communications. After completing initial employment training at the Defence Force School of Signals, he was posted to the 1st Combat Signals Regiment (1 CSR). As a member of 1 CSR he deployed with the Force Communications Element in September 2008 in support of …