Joel Fitzgibbon opens up about son Jack’s tragic death, and thanks supporters

Former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon says he has been overwhelmed by the thousands of messages his family has received in the wake of the death of his son Jack while serving in the ADF.

Joel Fitzgibbon says he has been overwhelmed by the thousands of messages his family has received in the wake of the death of his son Jack earlier this month while serving in the ADF.

“We will be eternally grateful to the literally thousands of people both around Australia and the world who have reached out to express support and do their best to provide comfort,” he told News Corp.

“Those universally positive messages from all around the world have been a great comfort to us.

“I think people recognising what our son did and the sacrifices he made is enormously comforting and we’ll be eternally grateful for that.”

Lance Corporal Jack Fitzgibbon died after being injured in a parachute training accident at Richmond RAAF base in Sydney. The 33-year old was serving in a commando in Australia’s special forces at the time of his death.

Former defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon has been wearing son Jack’s identity badge since the young commando died. Picture: Britta Campion

Jack Fitzgibbon was obsessed with the army from a young age, his Dad Joel said. Picture: Instagram

Mr Fitzgibbon, a former defence minister, said his old job had helped him in the weeks since his son’s passing.

“Having called many families myself to comfort them, that, too, brings me I think a little bit of comfort because I understand better than most what the boys like to do,” he said.

“I know they love their job and they’ll always seek an opportunity to put their training into effect, and I understand their objectives and their methods and I think that’s in a strange way a comfort to me.”

He said it was a strange experience being on the receiving end of the phone call.

“I said to Richard Marles it’s a bit ironic isn’t it I used to make these calls and now I’m taking this call from you,” he said.

“But again, I think having done it myself somehow I understood the position he was in too and felt for him.”

Grace Fitzgibbon posted this picture with her beloved brother after his tragic accident. Picture: Instagram

Mr Fitzgibbon said Jack had been proud to wear the uniform of Australia’s armed forces.

“He wore it with great pride but he did so very modestly.

“I never heard Jack tell anyone anywhere that he was in the specialist forces or to give them some idea about the things he did in that role.

“He’d just say ‘I’m in the ADF’ or tell a porkie and say he’s a chippy. He never sought recognition for what he did and we were proud of that.”

He said his son had loved his job in the military.

“Knowing he’s been there for 10 years, his mother would always push him on what he’d like to do next and she asked not that long ago ‘what’s your dream job Jack?’ — meaning post the military — and he simply responded by saying ‘I’m doing it’.

Mr Fitzgibbon said his son “just loved what he was doing and he loved serving his country”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese embraces Mr Fitzgibbon at Jack’s funeral. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“I told this story in my eulogy: From the age of three he wore what we used to call his army T-shirt, which I picked up on a visit to the Singleton army base, and he wore it so often his uncle nicknamed him Army Shirt.

“He’d say ‘here comes Army Shirt’ because [Jack] seemed to have it on at every opportunity and it was my job each year to back to Singleton to get a new one as he both wore them out and outgrew them, and we’ll never know if that was an early sign,” he said.

“In addition to that, when he was a little kid, whenever we passed an army vehicle or someone in an army uniform — which you do fairly regularly around here — Jack would always say ‘he’s army’.

“Whether it was a truck or a person, he’d say ‘he’s army’ – this was when he was a toddler.

“So whether those things were an early sign of the inevitability that he’d join the army we still don’t know but obviously he had a fascination from an early age.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said Jack had avoided leadership roles, aside from “reluctantly” accepting the school captaincy in Year Six.

“But while he eschewed formal leadership, he was a leader of people and people followed him — whether it be on the footy field, on the training ground, in the schoolyard where, you know I’m getting these heartbreaking messages from people who were bullied at school and Jack protected them.”

Mr Fitzgibbon said he would be eternally grateful to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, Defence Minister Richard Marles, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie and other MPs and Senators who had reached out.

“It was a special thing for the PM to suspend question time twice in one week, which is highly unusual, and it was an equally special thing for Peter Dutton to extend support for that decision,” he said.

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Originally published as Joel Fitzgibbon opens up about son Jack’s tragic death, and thanks supporters