Though Peter Ensor believed it unlikely anyone could tell him what happened to the man who helped him survive a tour of Afghanistan in 2007, he hadn’t given up trying to find an answer to the question that had stayed with him for the better part of two decades.

Arriving at a dinner with Afghan interpreters at the Dandenong RSL last month, the former military investigator asked the event organiser if he knew Raz Mohammad.

Ensor says he “almost fell over” when the organiser casually pointed to the end of the table, where Mohammad was sitting.

Having worked together at the Camp Holland army base in Tarin Kowt 18 years earlier, the pair suddenly found themselves unexpectedly reunited.

“When I saw him, it was a big shock for me,” Mohammad says. “I thought: ‘Wow, I’ve got my old friend here.’”

Ensor was once Australia’s only military investigator in Afghanistan. During this time, Mohammad shepherded him through grisly scenes, such as when Australian troops on alert for a suicide bomber shot dead a local mechanic who reportedly sped towards them in a car. Days later, two children were wounded when another vehicle similarly failed to heed warnings to stop.

It was left to Ensor to examine what went wrong, while Mohammad tried to mend relations with locals. Both did so under constant threat of Taliban attack.

“They were our guardian angels,” Ensor says. “I’m back home over here in one piece because of them.”

Ensor, at times, expected Mohammad would not return to work, given the threats to his family for helping Australian forces. The affable translator was honoured with a Bronze Commendation for his bravery, which included quelling another mistaken shooting.

The citation, signed by Major General Mark Kelly and seen by The Age, says two Afghans on a motorbike were fired upon after they failed to stop at a checkpoint. Mohammad quickly attended to the dead driver and his injured passenger, “an act which helped mollify an angry and confused crowd.”

Mohammad was born in Khost, near the border with Pakistan, where he fled as a child as the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan to live with his brother in Dubai. In 2006, after an American-led coalition ousted the Taliban, he returned to his homeland.

“We felt like the whole world army came here to develop our country,” Mohammad says. “And I was so glad to be a part of them. I never ever felt like they invaded Afghanistan.”

In 2014, Mohammad immigrated to Australia and remains proud of his service towards what he believes was a greater good, despite controversy about the mission and the conduct of some coalition forces.

Seven years later, he watched the Fall of Kabul with horror and sadness in 2021.

“It felt like it was a dream,” he says.

Ensor says he was similarly despondent. “I sat and watched it over here on TV, and I couldn’t believe that what we’d done had amounted to nothing.”

Born in India to a father who served in the British Army, Ensor moved to Melbourne as a child and joined the navy in 1973 to travel the world.

A thirst for knowledge led him toward investigative work, while a sense of duty compelled him to return to the military when the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service was set up. Soon, he was on a plane to Kabul.

“I was blind until I got over there. I didn’t realise how volatile [it was],” Ensor says. “Don’t let anyone ever tell you war ain’t scary. They’re lying.”

During his deployment, Ensor had the unenviable task of physically dealing with slain Taliban insurgents and dead Australian soldiers. He identified the body of David ‘Poppy’ Pearce, who was killed by a roadside bomb, and helped repatriate Matthew Locke, who was shot in a firefight.

Ensor thinks of them and other fallen comrades on Remembrance Day. However, he says that his return to Australia was difficult. He felt invisible after he handed over Locke’s body to officials in Perth, having cared for him on the long Hercules flight over the Indian Ocean.

“I fell through the cracks,” he says. “They talk about decompression and all of that, but I never went to any of them.”

It all became too much in 2019, and he was admitted to hospital for PTSD treatment.

Ensor says he feels better now and still adamantly declares: “By bloody Earth, I’d do it all again.”

Why?

“I’ve always served,” he says. “I wanted to follow my dad. I’ve always had this within me – whether it’s with the hockey club, or with the military. It has always been to try and help.

“To serve my country was an absolute pleasure.”

If you are a current or former ADF member or a relative and need counselling or support, contact the Defence All-Hours Support Line on 1800 628 036

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