Iraq and Afghanistan veteran Andrew Ward talks war and Anzac Day

A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts has described the dangers of war zones, recounting indiscriminate attacks from solar-powered rockets that went off when the sun went down. Read his story.

“You’re going about doing your job and then they’ll throw in a few rocket attacks in the night at you.”

Mackay digger Andrew Ward, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, when speaking about his deployments to combat zones, uttered the kind of sentence only Australia’s servicemen and women can deliver.

Mr Ward served our nation for 15 years as an avionics technician, working to maintain Iroquois and Chinook helicopters.

He was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and then Afghanistan in 2006 and 2008.

In Afghanistan, he was stationed primarily at the Kandahar air base, but would rotate into Tarin Kot to support Australia’s Special Forces when they were on operations.

He has lived through multiple rocket attacks.

“During the evening the Taliban would come and set up rocket attacks, that were solar powered, so when the sun went down, these rockets would fire indiscriminately into the compound,” he said.

“And it was usually around full-moons and things so they could see where they were walking at night.

“Some nights you might get nine to 12 rockets and other nights you might just get the three rockets.”

When the British armed forces took over the base and began regular patrols, the number of rocket attacks sharply reduced.

Mr Ward was a member of the Royal Australian Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Corp and his military worklife threw up some remarkable challenges, including one experience getting a damaged Special Forces helicopter to the ground safely.

“It was trying to land in the desert to do a pick-up of Special Forces guys out in the middle of nowhere and they kind of got blinded by all the sand flying around and they snapped off one of the landing gears,” he said.

“So when that came back we had to organise some tyres to put underneath the back so it could land on the tyres instead of not having a landing gear.”

Mr Ward’s sacrifice goes beyond simply putting himself in a combat zone.

In 2006, his first daughter was born while he way away on deployment.

“That was pretty difficult,” he said.

Mr Ward has two daughters and lives in Mackay, moving here for work.

Mr Ward said Anzac Day was a great day for remembrance.

“People past, people current, things that you’ve done, mates you’ve been out with,” he said.

“And it’s a good catching up day I think.

“There are a lot of dudes who don’t go out and do much, but they’ll come out on Anzac Day and you get to catch up with them.”

He has formed deep and lasting bonds with his fellow Diggers.

“I don’t see them a lot, but when you do, it’s sort of like no time has passed,” he said.

Speaking of the war in Ukraine, Mr Ward said Australia, Europe and the United States should do more to help, including with boots on the ground.

He said he sometimes wished he could get into the fight and help out.