Call of duty: Former soldier Dave Royles survived Taliban bombs – now he mentors troubled teens in boot camps on home soil
Dave Royles survived deadly Taliban bombs as a teenage soldier. That inspired his new mission – helping troubled youths fight their own battles through military-style boot camps.
A dusty, dangerous drive in Afghanistan. An explosion like thunder. Rock fragments shower the convoy as a giant dust cloud engulfs the young soldiers.
The vehicle in front of Dave Royles was ripped apart by a roadside bomb, killing two people from his regiment – two other young Australian men, just like him.
That was in 2009. Sixteen years later, Dave is waging a very different kind of battle. He runs a military-style boot camp for struggling teens.
Parents around Australia who are desperate to give their troubled kids the chance to turn their lives around pay $6000 for the nine-day camp.
The man they trust with their children, many of whom have ADHD and autism, is Dave.
His path started in the arid central valleys of Afghanistan. When Dave arrived, the Taliban were about to up the ante after improving their already feared improvised roadside bombs.
Dave’s tour of trauma
Dave always wanted to be in the army. When he arrived in Afghanistan still a teenager, he never anticipated the power and extent of the Taliban’s improvised warfare.
“The Taliban are made up of people who have fought wars basically since the dawn of time,” he explained. “They are very smart and constantly adapting.”
When he first arrived in the jagged valleys and mud-hut villages of central Afghanistan – a long way from Dapto, near Wollongong – departing soldiers told him battles were rare.
“They said I’d be lucky if I fired a shot. It didn’t turn out that way.”
Gun battles were constant. Ten Australians would die in the area during his eight-month stints – including the two in his regiment.
Dave had heard about the Taliban’s roadside bombs during training. By the time he arrived in 2009, the crude devices had become more sophisticated, deadlier.
“I was 19, turned 20 over there. Even when I got back after eight months, I was still a kid. When I took time off, the cracks started to show.”
First came emotional overreactions, often fuelled by alcohol. Then the flashbacks of the time the car just ahead of him on his convoy exploded, killing his two friends: “Predominantly the IED blast that killed our guys. It was never chronological – maybe the middle, maybe the start, all over the place.”
Suffering back pain from endless truck rides and diagnosed with PTSD, anger gave way to sadness. Therapy, gym training, and reading about trauma became coping tools. “Someone explained anger is sadness coming out sideways. That helped me start to deal with things I experienced in operations.”
One day he saw a social media advert: a camp for troubled kids run by military veterans. And Dave’s life took another turn.
Rocco’s troubled childhood
Not long after Dave deployed, Rocco McManus was born in outer-west Brisbane. Diagnosed with autism, school was a daily battle. Staff at Brassall State School were supportive, but Rocco often felt overwhelmed – hiding under stairs, or walking out altogether.
“It was a real fight-or-flight response,” his mother Kate said. “He was bullied, struggled with emotions, very explosive. He wasn’t a nasty kid – he just didn’t have any confidence.”
He was diagnosed with ADHD at age seven.
By year six at school, he kept running away – the reasons weren’t entirely clear why, but his parents began to think it related to being bullied.
With high school looming, Kate worried. Then she saw the same advert Dave had answered years earlier – a boot camp run by veterans.
The Veteran Mentors program runs nine-day residential camps in Yandina, Queensland, and Kangaroo Valley, NSW. Teenagers hand in their phones, wear fatigues, and live under strict rules.
Alongside physical drills come mentoring, meditation and job training. The aim: resilience, respect, accountability.
“When we first told Rocco he wasn’t keen. Twice he tried to run away,” Kate said. At the Yandina camp, among tall white gums and lorikeets, he earned the nickname “night squealer” for calling out after dark. “He really struggled with the first three days.”
Then things began to shift – he met Dave. After camp, Rocco began one-on-one mentoring with Dave. That’s when, Kate said, her son – once full of “big feelings” with no outlet – began to come alive.
“I think it gave him confidence against bullies. Dave formed a relationship with him, became protective, and responded in a nurturing way when Rocco had stories.”
Giving troubled kids hope
Dave said the method is simple: “We don’t say don’t do things just for the sake of it. We explain why. We sit and chat about what makes them angry. They tell us things they’ve never told anyone. Because finally they have a place without judgment.”
He used his story carefully. “Me losing mates in combat is very different, but the feelings are similar. A kid might be angry because a friend committed suicide. I was angry because I lost friends in Afghanistan. The reasons are different but the healing is similar.
“Maybe what I tell them doesn’t help, but another mentor’s story might. They see there are ways forward.”
Rocco began to change. He woke early, did personal training, joined cadets. He stopped running from school and started to talk.
“I gave the him the opportunity to think for himself and work things out for himself, rather than just telling him things straight out,” Dave explained.
Kate is amazed at the difference in her son. “He still has big feelings but he has tools now,” she said. “He has confidence. He feels like he belongs.”
Dave, now the Queensland Veteran Mentors platoon leader, says the key is showing kids their capacity. “They don’t think they’re deserving. Then they look back – they were scared of heights, and now they’ve abseiled down a cliff. That pride shifts everything.”
Nearly three years on, Rocco still catches up with Dave once a month. The main lesson? “Don’t quit just because something gets hard,” Rocco said.
The road ahead isn’t simple – 15 is never an easy age. But he now begs to go on military camps, has joined cadets, and has a plan.
“I want to join the army,” he said. Just like his mentor.
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Originally published as Call of duty: Former soldier Dave Royles survived Taliban bombs – now he mentors troubled teens in boot camps on home soil
