CSM Cleland’s checkpoint was in the dry bed of a small creek. From there the section walked North West across a grassy flat, across another small dry creek, then up a long, gentle slope that was bare of trees. A sparse covering of grass on sandy soil offered smooth walking. By now their eyes had adjusted to the starlight and visibility was quite good. The dark shapes of a few scattered trees in the distance were the only vegetation. Graham quickly realized that a tree on the crestline ahead of them was their next objective but he resisted the temptation to point this out to Kirsty.
She obviously worked it out for herself, particularly when the flicker of a torch showed under the tree. “That big tree is the next check point,” she said.
Graham agreed and they walked quickly on. He was pleased when they covered the distance in only five minutes and no-one caused any problems. Lt Hamilton, the unit QM, was there with the Company Quartermaster Sergeant, Coralie Bates. Also there was 2 Section, Cpl Costigan. They were departing as 4 Section arrived.
“Who’s that?” Costigan called.
“Four Section,” Graham replied.
“Huh! Late and lost probably!” Costigan replied in a sneering tone.
The fact that they were late caused Graham to flush with shame and annoyance. With an effort he ignored the comment and went over to Lt Hamilton. Lt Hamilton was a slim officer in his late twenties. He had a moustache which he continually stroked, a gesture Graham found irritating. ‘Fancies himself with the ladies,’ was the rumour.
As quickly as he could Graham worked out the next leg. Lt Hamilton added a spur by saying, “You had better get a move on. It is nearly twenty one hundred. It is only fifteen minutes to the cut-off time.”
That sent Graham’s heart rate soaring with anxiety. ‘This is only the third checkpoint,’ he thought. With feverish haste he worked out the next leg and showed his sums to Lt Hamilton. The OOC nodded and said they could go.
“Let’s go Four Section,” Graham said, while quickly setting the compass.
“I’m tired. I want to stay here,” Andrews replied.
“No way, not unless you are really sick,” Graham snapped back. “
“I am sick,” Andrews replied.
Staff Sgt Bates stepped forward. “No you aren’t Cadet Andrews. You just want a ride back in the Land Rover. Get moving.”
Andrews grumbled but he moved. Graham handed the compass to him. “Your turn, now get moving.”
There were more grumbles but Andrews took the compass, lined it up and, to Graham’s intense relief, started walking. “Thanks,” he whispered to Staff Sgt Bates.
The next leg took them north across the gravel Canning Road and on over the wide, flat top of Bare Ridge. As they crested the rise Graham noted a bright cluster of distant lights. So did the others.
“Oooh!” Lucy cried. “What are those lights?”
“Charters Towers,” Graham replied, naming the town.
“Is it far?” Kirsty asked.
“Twenty or thirty kilometres,” Graham replied.
“Oh, as far as that,” Dianne said, the disappointment clear in her voice.
“I wish I was there,” Lucy added.
“Me too!” Halyday cried.
“Never mind gaping at the bright lights of the big city,” Graham said, “We are late, so keep walking”
“I’m tired,” Dianne replied.
“And I’m getting a blister,” Andrews added.
“So walk fast and we will get home quicker,” Graham said.
With a steady flow of grumbling the section continued on over the crest to a gully where they found the 3 Platoon staff, CUO Mitrovitch and Sgt Yeldham. A glance at his watch told Graham it was 2107hrs. ‘Only eight minutes to the cut-off time,’ he thought anxiously.
Even so CUO Mitrovitch gave him the next leg to do. Graham set rapidly to work. This time it only took Graham three minutes to do the calculation. As he showed it to CUO Mitrovitch she nodded with approval. “Very good, that is the quickest so far, and you even got it right.”
Before Graham could answer her Kirsty bumped against him and said, “That’s Four Section Ma’am, the best!”
That led to some good natured teasing while Graham gave the compass to Roger. “Go flat out Roger,” he said. “We have three legs to go and only about twenty minutes.”
They set off up the slope out of the gully. This led them through a stand of gum trees. The bare ground was covered with small stones and dry leaves and sticks so their progress was quite noisy. So was that of another section heading towards them.
The other section appeared as dark shapes among the trees.
“Who are you mob?” called a voice.
Graham’s heart sank. Cpl Bannister, Pigsy’s section.
“Four Section,” Graham replied.
At once Pigsy called back, “Kirk, the gutless wonder! I’m surprised you were even game to leave the fire in case a Yowie Man got ya!”
Andrews replied to that. “There aren’t any such things as Yowie Men, or Drop Bears!”
Jeering, mocking laughter erupted from the other group. “Might not be Drop Bears but the Yowie Men are out there,” Pigsy said. “They will get ya if ya ain’t careful.”
“Shut up Pike and stop making up stories to frighten the new cadets,” Graham retorted. To his added annoyance both groups had stopped walking and were now about ten paces apart.
“Oh yeah, who’s gunna make me?” Pike replied in a sneering tone.
“Me,” Graham answered. He found he was trembling and that his lips had gone dry.
“Huh, you and what army?” Pigsy taunted.
Roger spoke up for the first time. “This army.”
That caused more cruel laughter and Moynihan’s voice called back, “If it isn’t the fat little fag!”
That hurt. Graham knew there had been a few rumours about Roger over the years and he also knew Roger was very sensitive about his weight. To end the confrontation he said, “Keep moving Roger. We want to finish.”
Roger growled but obeyed. As they began to move Waters called out a crude comment. To which Pigsy added an even cruder one. That embarrassed Graham. He hated crude talk in the hearing of girls. He called angrily back, “That’s enough of that sort of talk. There are girls here.”
“You are all sooky girls in that section!” Moynihan jeered.
The sexist comment and crude swearing really stung Graham. He shouted angrily, “Why don’t you control your section Cpl Bannister?”
It was Pigsy who replied. “Shut up Kirk and mind your own business or I’ll smash you to pulp. Now clear out, you pack of mincing queers.”
Rather than aggravate the situation Graham made no reply. The section walked quickly on through the bush. To Graham’s relief he heard the other section go trampling off in the opposite direction. “Sorry about that,” he said to the section.
“That’s alright,” Kirsty replied. “Wasn’t your fault. Anyway, we’ve heard worse.”
“They are gross animals,” Lucy added.
Suddenly Pat tripped. The section had come out into an area that had once been scraped for gravel and there were several small erosion rills. As Graham turned Pat struggled to his feet, muttering and swearing. He rubbed his knee.
Graham helped him keep his balance. “You OK Pat?”
“Yeah, push on. We want to finish this. If we move we will still do it,” Pat answered.
“Yes we can,” Roger agreed. “And I reckon Pigsy’s mob won’t because they probably have three legs still to go.”
Graham turned this over in his mind but could not decide. He knew each section went a different route, with zig zags all over the area from check point to check point. But it was worth trying.
The group hurried on, although Andrews still grumbled about blisters. Two minutes later they came to a road junction. From the map Graham knew that the road to the left went to the junction of two rivers, the Canning and the Bunyip. The other road ran north to the Canning and crossed it to a cattle station on the north bank. At the road junction was a Land Rover and two OOCs: Lt Maclaren, the unit 2ic, and Lt McEwen, a pretty lady teacher in her twenties.
Lt Maclaren shone a torch on them as they arrived. “You people are out of time. You had better just walk home along the road,” he said.
Graham looked at his watch. It was 2118, 3 minutes past the cut-off time. His heart sank but he made an effort to win. “We only have two more legs to go sir and one of them takes us home. Can we please go on?”
“There might not be any at the check point when you get there,” Lt Maclaren replied.
“Can you find out sir, please?” Graham asked. It now seemed very important to him to get right around the course and, even more, to beat Pigsy’s section.
Lt Maclaren studied the exercise plan and the said, “I will try. You’re next checkpoint is ‘Foxtrot’ and the OC is there. I’ll see if he will wait.” He picked up a radio handset and called. To Graham’s relief Checkpoint ‘F’ replied at once. Lt Maclaren said, “I’ve got Corporal Kirk’s section here and they want to come home through your check point, over.”
There was a pause and then he heard the OC’s voice. “Yes, if he is quick. He only has one more leg after us. Send him on and tell him to be here in ten minutes, over.”
By then Graham had his notebook and map out. Roger clicked on his torch and Lt Maclaren read out the Grid Reference. “It is a power pole on top of a rise,” he added.
Graham found it and made a mark on his map. “About four hundred metres,” he said. As quickly as he could he drew the pencil line and got to work with his protractor. As he did Kirsty pressed against him but he barely noticed. In two more minutes he had the bearing. “Eighty seven degrees.” He stood up, adjusting the compass. “Who hasn’t had a go?”
“Dianne,” Roger told him.
“Here, quick,” Graham cried. He passed the compass to Dianne and then leaned close to check she was holding it correctly. As he did so he fretted at the time. 2125! Where did the minutes go? As soon as it looked like Dianne was facing the right way Graham gave her a push to start walking.
“I’m staying here,” Andrews then said.
“No you aren’t,” Graham replied. “Come on. We are on the way home now.”
“But I’ve got blisters!” Andrews moaned.
To Graham’s relief Roger, Pat and Kirsty all chipped in. “Oh make the effort please. We want to get around as a section,” Kirsty asked.
Andrews grumbled but started walking. Graham heaved a big sigh and then concentrated on the navigation. The course was through another area of dry open bush which was easy to walk through and it was only as they crossed a small dry creek bed that he realized he hadn’t even thought about snakes for most of the time. Nor had Andrews made any further comment about being scared.
Within five minutes the section was up on another low ridge and came out into a powerline clearing. Graham looked left and right to see if he could see the people at the check point. “Left,” he said, walking quickly that way.
Capt Conkey was waiting at the pole with two other people. To his mild dismay Graham saw they were his own platoon staff: CUO Masters and Sgt Grenfell.
“OK Cpl Kirk,” Capt Conkey said, “It is right on twenty one thirty and I want to be back at camp by twenty one forty. Take us home.”
The thought of having to work out navigation in front of the OC, his platoon commander and sergeant, sent Graham’s stomach into a flutter of nerves. He took out map and notebook. Now teamwork helped. Roger held the torch and Graham studied the map. Once again Kirsty crouched beside him and pressed against him. ‘That is very nice,’ he thought, ‘but I wish she wouldn’t do it in front of the OC!’
A careful study of the map showed Graham that if he just walked south he would come to Sandy Ridge. He also noted that the ridge they were on led up between two creeks to a vehicle track which led to Sandy Ridge. ‘It will be easier going if we walk a dog-leg,’ he thought, but he wasn’t sure if that was what the OC wanted. ‘I’ll risk it,’ he decided. ‘Be easier than struggling across the head of those gullies in the dark.’ He remembered seeing the top ends of the gullies and noting they were quite steep and rocky.
He did not even bother to do the sums to calculate a magnetic bearing, just estimated. ‘It won’t matter. It is only about 300 metres and we must come to that other track anyway,’ he reasoned. He set the compass on 75 degrees and handed it to Halyday.
“Your turn. Do you remember how to use it?” he asked.
“Think so,” Halyday replied. He turned to face what he thought was the right way but Graham saw that he was actually facing North. Feeling very conscious of all the important eyes on him Graham got Halyday to turn the right way. “Now keep the North Pointer between those two dots.OK, let’s go.”
Graham was sweating now, anxious not to muck it up in front of the OC and CUO Masters. The group set off up the grassy spur. ‘Only six minutes to go!’ Graham thought anxiously. He tried to hurry Halyday, walking beside him and constantly peering at the compass to check he wasn’t going off course. After about a hundred metres he realised they were walking along a cattle pad which seemed to follow the very crest of the gentle spur uphill. He was tempted to tell Halyday to just follow the cattle pad but resisted that. ‘Better not, not with the OC watching,’ he reasoned.
It took four stressful minutes to reach the vehicle track. By then Graham was becoming anxious because they were angling slowly towards the slope leading down into a gully on the right and they were meeting small outcrops of rock which slowed them down. Perspiring with effort and anxiety he strained his eyes in the starlight to see. Just as he was wondering if the track no longer existed he noted two faint wheel ruts through the grass. Once again he sighed with relief.
“OK Halyday, just turn right and follow the track,” he said.
“What track?” Halyday asked.
Graham could not believe that Halyday could not see the lines in the starlight. He pointed. “These two wheel ruts.”
“Oh yeah! Now I see them,” Halyday replied. They set off along the track which wound slightly through the bush and up a very gentle slope. Behind him Graham heard the OC grunt and make some comment to CUO Masters but whether it was approval or not he did not know.
Within a hundred paces they came to 4 Platoon’s hutchies. At that Graham felt very relieved. ‘One minute to spare!’ he thought.
From ahead, out at the big ironbark, came the sound of many voices and Graham saw torches flickering. Then the glow of the officer’s fire became visible on his left front and he knew he had done it. His sense of satisfaction was added to when Capt Conkey said, “Well done Cpl Kirk. Take your section over to the company and sit them in line.”
Graham did so. Sgt Grenfell followed and took over 2 Platoon. Almost the whole company was seated there in section lines, the sergeants standing at the back. Finding the correct place Graham seated his section and then sat down next to Gwen.
“You took your time,” Gwen commented as Graham sat down.
The comment rankled but Graham only half heard it because he was very aware that Kirsty was pressing her knees against his back. ‘Is she doing that deliberately, or is it just crowded back there?’ he wondered. Unsure, he decided he didn’t mind and said nothing.
Two Land Rovers came driving back along the track which led in from the Canning Road along the top of Sandy Ridge. Several groups of CUOs and sergeants walked in out of the bush and reported to the OC at the fire then joined the company. After a few minutes CSM Cleland arrived and bellowed for silence. After the cadets had stopped talking the CSM called for reports, a platoon at a time. When he got to 4 Platoon Sgt White answered, “Two sections still missing CSM.”
There was a ripple of snickering and comments. Graham experienced a spurt of satisfaction which turned to positive glee when he heard that one was Bannister’s section. The other was 12 Section, Cpl David Doyle.
“Bloody ‘Dimbo’ Doyle!” muttered a dozen voices.
“Who else!”
“What else could you expect?” asked Stephen. Graham could only silently agree. Dimbo’s navigation, or lack of it, was now legendary. It had been an error on his part in the exercise near Bowen in August that had put him five kilometres outside the exercise area because he had marched along a Back Bearing. That this had fortuitously placed him in a position to help rescue Barbara, Gwen and two other girls was another thing.
While CSM Cleland was checking if both groups from HQ were back a section came walking in from near the officer’s fire.
“Which section is that?” CSM Cleland called.
“Eleven Section Sir,” replied Cpl Bannister.
“Lost and late!” called someone.
“Silence in the ranks!” CSM Cleland roared. His torch swept over 2 Platoon where the comment had come from. “Platoon sergeants, control your troops.”
When 11 Section was seated CSM Cleland sent a runner over to the OC. Capt Conkey and the officers walked over and stood in the circle of light from a lantern. When CSM Cleland reported that the only people missing were Cpl Doyle’s section Graham noted that the expression on Capt Conkey’s face did not change. “Thank you CSM. We will look for them in a moment. These people can be dismissed first.”
Capt Conkey then took a sheet of paper from Lt Standish, who then shone a torch on it while the captain read. “Well, we had fourteen sections go out on the navex and it appears that only five have managed to get right around in time. They are One Section, Four section, Five Section, Six Section and Nine Section.”
There was a buzz of conversation, quelled by the CSM as Capt Conkey went on. “That means that all of Two Platoons sections made it, and they took all their cadets with them. Well done Two Platoon.”
‘Yes!’ Graham thought, even as he was aware of some jeering and unkind muttering from other platoons. Now he was pleased.
Capt Conkey then turned to CSM Cleland and said, “It is nearly twenty two hundred. They can stay up for another twenty minutes or so but I want them all in bed by twenty two thirty. The sergeants are to stay with the platoons but I want all CUOs to help the officers find Cpl Doyle’s section. Carry on CSM.”
As the OC walked away CSM Cleland told the sergeants to move their platoons back to their areas and get them ready for bed.
“Will the canteen be open?” called Cadet Rundle from 1 Platoon.
“You address me as ‘Sir’, Cadet Rundle,” CSM Cleland replied. “And no. The officers have to find Cpl Doyle. Now get moving sergeants.”
“Bugger Doyle!” was the muttered consensus as the cadets stood and dusted themselves before moving off in platoon lots. Graham shook his head and silently thanked his lucky stars. ‘Boy, am I glad we didn’t get lost!’ he thought. That sort of public humiliation did not appeal at all. To rub this in his radio came to life as the OC called Dimbo’s call sign.
Sgt Grenfell marched 2 Platoon straight back to their area, then fell them out. As he did Graham called out, “Four Section, stay here!”
“Oh, what for!” cried Andrews in exasperation.
“Yeah hurry up, I’m busting for a leak,” added Halyday.
Graham was too but he managed to suppress the surge of annoyance at their grumbling. “I just wanted to say well done. You did a great job. It was a great team effort. Thanks. That’s all, off you go.” he said.
That mollified them. As they dispersed with an outburst of chatter Graham walked beside Andrews. “Particularly you Cadet Andrews. Because you had the guts to try you helped the whole section.”
Andrews made no reply but Graham could tell he was pleased. Graham walked to his hutchie and dropped his webbing with a sigh of relief.
“What about a cup of coffee?” Roger suggested.
“Good idea,” Graham agreed. “We still have fifteen minutes.”
He dragged his pack out and sat on it beside Roger. As he dug out his hexamine stove he heard a below from Sgt Grenfell and saw a torch beam light up two boy’s backs. Graham recognized Andrews and Halyday.
Sgt Grenfell roared angrily, “Hoy! You dirty little toads! Don’t you do a pee there! You walk to the latrine.”
Graham blushed with shame. ‘Little buggers!’ he thought in exasperation. He watched to see that they did actually walk off towards the latrine. He was annoyed they had been caught as he had often been guilty of just using the nearest bit of dark bush himself.
Stephen came and joined them as Roger lit his hexamine. Gwen and Barbara then sat opposite and also began organizing their ‘supper’. As they lit stoves and began heating water the two Land Rovers drove off out to the Canning Road and a group of CUOs led by Capt Conkey went past heading out into the night. Every few minutes the OC called Dimbo on the radio but got no response.
“Dimbo won’t be very popular,” Graham commented.
“Again!” Stephen added.
They all laughed but as Graham looked up he met Barbara’s eyes and he could tell she was reliving that ghastly experience. She said softly, “He saved my life, so don’t tease him please.”
Graham felt embarrassed and nodded. Barbara held his gaze for a second longer, making him wonder if she was sending him some sort of invitation. ‘She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl,’ he thought, watching the firelight shimmer on her copper red hair. When he had rescued her she had been naked and he had been granted more than a good eyeful. Now images of her nude shape flooded his mind and fired his thoughts. ‘I wonder?’ He began to speculate. It went no further. Deep down he sensed she probably wasn’t the girl for him. ‘A bit too much strong will and fire there I think,’ he thought.
That got him thinking about girls and girl friends and his thoughts wandered onto Kirsty. ‘Might be possibilities in that direction,’ he mused. But that gave him twinges of guilt. Not only was Kirsty one of his cadets but he knew that there was a girl back in Cairns who loved him deeply. That was Margaret Lake, a Year 8 student at his school. She was also his sister Kylie’s best friend. Margaret had openly adored him for years and he wavered between loving her and being attracted to other, prettier girls.
‘Poor little Margaret. She’s a nice kid but she can’t compare with Barbara, or Lucy,’ he thought, picturing Margaret’s cheerful, freckled face and chubby build.
At that moment a piercing scream of pure terror sounded. It came from the darkness over beyond 4 Platoon.