Dave Garratt does, and it triggered a move from the battlefield to the courtroom.

The corporal was made a partner at Gold Coast firm Howden Saggers Lawyers last year despite leaving school after Year 9 and not being able to get a job washing cars.

He talks about shooting people while on duty and society’s biggest scourge — drugs.

SERVING IN IRAQ

At just 25, Mr Garratt was already an experienced veteran when he was posted to Iraq in 2005.

He had two peacekeeping tours of East Timor under this belt, had reached the rank of Corporal and was a the team leader of a reconnaissance unit with the 6 RAR.

On January 19, 2005 a suicide car bomber ploughed into the Australian embassy in Baghdad.

Mr Garratt’s unit sustained a number of casualties.

Five days later, at the same embassy, Mr Garratt and his team were again in the line of fire.

“We had received intelligence that there were more suicide bombers in the area,” he said.

“I was on the ninth floor, a van drove down the opposite side of the road against traffic.

“The boot came up and out come all the fuel drums and the driver got out of the car … his wife got out of the car as well.”

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Mr Garratt said local security spoke to the woman but soon dropped their guns and ran.

“They thought it was a bomb,” he said.

“Five of us started yelling at him to obey our commands so as team leader I made the decision to kill him.”

Mr Garratt fired, hitting him three times.

THE LAW DECISION

A month later, Mr Garratt’s mates were involved in an eerily similar incident.

“On 26 February 2005 another couple of guys from a team, not my team, involved in a quite serious shooting and they were sort of hung out to dry by our own chain of command,” he said.

“I think that is what first sparked my interest in law.”

The soldiers were on a night patrol when a car did not stop, despite repeated commands.

The patrol opened fire, injuring Lamyaa al-Saadi and her son Ahmed, a family who were travelling the area.

Ms Saadi lost the sight in one eye, suffered skull and jaw fractures, hearing loss and scarring to her face. Ahmed, then 8, was blinded in one eye.

It was not until 2008 that the Australian Defence Force cleared the soldiers of any wrongdoing.

Mr Garratt said the stark contrast between how he was treated compared to his mates made him want to stick up for those who were accused.

“The simple fact that these guys that were mates of mine were presumed to be guilty.

“There was no presumption of innocence and they were ostracised.

“They still feel that they were sort of harshly treated without a fair trial.

“I think that first made my ears pop up and I might be interested in something law.”

Ms Saadi and her family have since relocated to Australia.

FINISHED AT YEAR 9

A university degree had never been on the cards when Mr Garratt was a teenager.

“School sort of wasn’t for me,” he said.

Mr Garratt’s father Barry Garratt was conscripted to serve in Vietnam and instilled an interest in the military.

“He never pushed me to join the Army at all … he was battling his own demons,” he said.

“I guess I joined the Army to be as tough as him.”

Knowing he wanted to become a soldier, Mr Garratt left school after Year 9, passing the only two subjects he needed to join the ADF — English and maths.

Mr Garratt would spent the next two years doing menial jobs including emptying sanitary napkin bins, working retail and fast food.

As soon as he could, he signed up to be a soldier at just 17 at the end of 1997.

When it came to studying a law degree Mr Garratt knew his limited schooling would make things tough.

“I guess what drove me through was a lot of people, including my dad, saying, ‘you will never be able to do it, you are not smart enough for it’.

“To graduate with honours was a bit … you know …”

Mr Garratt’s dad never saw his son practice as a lawyer.

The pair were visiting battlefields in Gallipoli when they got lost searching for a grave.

Mr Garratt’s dad collapsed and by the time Mr Garratt had gotten help, his father had died.

LEAVING THE ARMY

After finishing his tour in Iraq, Mr Garratt returned to Brisbane where he was acting in an instructing role before following a girl to Adelaide.

“I found adjusting quite hard.

“It wasn’t until after about 18 months of floating around, going from job to job that I decided to study law.”

Mr Garratt said he found it almost impossible to find a job in those two years.

“I applied for so many jobs. I got out of the Army thinking I was God’s gift to any employer because of the skills I had from the Army,” he said.

“It just wasn’t the case … I couldn’t get a job washing cars.”

He said he understood the veterans who had difficulties adjusting.

“You are trained as a warrior and when you get out you become a victim.”

Mr Garratt said he missed his mates he had served alongside and struggled with not having goals to reach.

LEGAL CAREER

At 30 and armed with a law degree, Mr Garratt had the daunting task of starting at the bottom of a career most people his age embarked on six years earlier.

Mr Garratt volunteered at a community legal centre to gain legal experience while he was completing his degree.

It was a chance meeting with solicitor Peter Saggers at Cleveland Court which landed him a foot in the door at Howden Saggers in Southport.

“I was extremely lucky to be mentored by Mark Howden, who is now a magistrate, and just learn so much from him,” he said.

After six years, Mr Garratt was last year made partner at the firm.

But throughout the past six years, the defence force continues to be a theme in his work.

In 2017, he represented former soldier Chris Carter who was acquitted for the murder of his ex-wife and partner in Upper Coomera in January 2015.

He is currently representing another soldier who is accused of choking his wife.

Mr Garratt said it was the Army which helped him prepare for what he has to do now.

“I guess seeing what I saw in East Timor and Iraq has sort of prepared me to deal with the sort of cases that I see in criminal law now,” he said.

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“It’s given me a good basis for having to put on that suit of armour when you are dealing with clients who have allegedly committed serious offences.”

Mr Garratt said there was a recurring theme at Southport Courthouse which did still surprise him.

“Drugs,” he said.

“Unfortunately the drugs … it never ceases to amaze me how many people out there who have drug problems. People who are high functioning of professional capacity and sometimes it does surprise me.”