In his first year in command of the 3rd Brigade, the seasoned soldier, has seen his troops deployed around the country

As parts of the nation were engulfed by flames, our soldiers left to the frontline and held force long after the coals had burnt out.

As states and territories closed borders to stop the spread of COVID-19, our soldiers patrolled borders.

As Australians adjusted to working from home, our soldiers continued training for war.

BUSH FIRES

Brigadier Fegan barely had his feet under the desk when he deployed Townsville based soldiers on Operation Bushfire Assist from December 31, 2019 to support state fire and emergency services across NSW, Victoria and Queensland. They would later provide support to the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania.

Members and aircraft from Townsville’s 5th Aviation Regiment were part of a joint military operations, including Singapore, tasked with rescue and reconnaissance missions, led by outgoing Commanding Officer Jamie Martin.

COVID-19

By mid January 2020, the Brigade Commander had a new enemy to fight, coronavirus. By March, he was ordered to send his troops home from base.

Needing to keep his troops battle ready, this new way of doing business proved challenging for a workforce of thousands which has long relied on teamwork.

“It was arguably the most confronting problem that I’d ever been given as an army officer,” Brig Fegan said.

“We’ve got a young workforce, and one that we need to keep stimulating, we need to keep educating a professional workforce, so it’s not like I can just put them on a shelf for months of time.

“After asking ‘how do we do that and maintain that ability to react rapidly?’ we developed this professional military education and development package that we rolled out so that every soldier had something to work on.”

With soldiers creating innovative projects by the dozen, Brig Fegan declared the approach a success.

“One of the big learnings for me, was that I need to be more willing to accept risk in terms of empowering my junior leaders,” he said.

“We have this concept of mission command where you give a person or team and give them intent, here are your resources and time. Go and do it.

“We use that mission command philosophy on operations very effectively, but for various reasons, often in a peacetime environment we’re not as willing to accept the associated risk of empowering people to work tirelessly without direct supervision.

“This experience showed us that when people are set up for success. When we invest, when we give them what they need and give them some guidance and give them some resources they can achieve amazing things.”

DEPLOYMENTS AND TRAINING

With their core business still warfare in the name of Australia’s sovereignty, soldiers continued to train. Exercise Brolga Run saw the entirety of capabilities from across the 3rd Brigade perform in a simulated crisis to protect a group of refugees in an area where law and order was breaking down.

From artillery, infantry, cavalry, tanks and military dogs – there was no asset left unused as parts of High Range were blown to pieces and others turned into an urban area to flex war fighting muscles to be applied in any situation from peacetime and stabilisation to high end warfare.

“I was blown away by the professionalism and tactical skill of our soldiers,” he said.

As the rest of us celebrate Christmas, the bulk of forces on Operation COVID Assist are from the 3rd Brigade, charged with maintaining state and territory border lines and will remain on duty. Others are deployed to Afghanistan and Malaysia while the remainder of soldiers posted to Townsville have been ordered to stay locally and be prepared for natural disaster support.

ARMY CULTURE

As the Brereton Report detailing alleged horrific war crimes in Afghanistan dropped, a trial in Townsville opened a can of worms, into the Garrison City’s soldiers.

In mid November, a Defence Force Magistrate Trial was held at RAAF Base Townsville for six soldiers charged by Military Police over an incident in May 2019 in which a group, allegedly dressed in undies and a smattering of armour, wrestled a colleague from his swag and restrained him with cable ties.

“I won’t talk about the individuals or the individual case (but) what I can say is I honestly don’t feel like there is a problem with culture,” he said.

“There was absolutely, without doubt unacceptable behaviour at the beginning of 2019 and what transpired was unacceptable but every day I’m engaging with the 2nd Cavalry Regiment and all other units and, every single day there is evidence that I see that reinforces the culture is changing.

“We’re adapting our culture so people feel better about putting their hand up and saying ‘that’s wrong’ and the organisation is a lot better about supporting those people, because there was a time when we struggled.”

Brig Fegan admitted the ADF was now working hard to restore its reputation.

He joined soldiers of the 1st Royal Australia Regiment to watch the Chief of the Defence Force address the nation in response to the release of the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report.

“I just sat in that audience, I wanted to do this because I wondered what the atmospherics were like with soldiers.

“I felt it hit me quite hard and had so many questions going through my head, and there were a few times where I felt it in the audience as if people were sucking in air through teeth.

“The forces commander rang me up to ask me my thoughts and one thing was, people started saying ‘how did it happen?’ how did the environment manifest with unacceptable behaviour of that nature? And, what do we do about it?’”

After having deployed as a Commander on operations in Afghanistan, Brig Fegan felt compelled to address his troops, unrehearsed.

“I looked at that audience and I realised probably 80 – 90 per cent of that audience weren’t even in the army in 2012 during that period,” he said.

“These members were young and what I realised is them asking themselves ‘what does this mean for us? What is next for us as an organisation?’

“From the youngest soldier to the oldest was saying that is absolutely wrong so that was reassuring for me.”

FESTIVE SEASON

The Christmas period has long been a challenging time for people feeling isolated or dealing with financial and emotional stresses, particularly those in the veteran community. The fall out from the Afghanistan Inquiry has added to the Brigade Commander’s concern.

“We have a young workforce who traditionally would be able to go home and stay with their families, travel overseas or be able to take holidays and things like that where that opportunity might not be there this year, so I’m very aware of that.

“We’re really promoting that people make the effort to contact at least five people to check on them, we’re doing “adopt a digger” and that is identifying someone within the unit who can’t go home and invite them over to your house, whether it's a meal with your family or just to hang out we want soldiers to know they’re not forgotten.”