I came from a military background. I had two great uncles and my grandfather who were in the First World War. My grandfather survived but the two uncles were killed in action and missing in action.
My father was in the Army 6 Div during the Second World War and my mother was in the Air Force for 12 months in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF).
Growing up I used to say to my parents I was going to join the Air Force when I was ‘grown up’. When I did grow up, I went to all the recruiting offices to find out the information.
After visiting the recruitment centres, I chose the Army as first enlistment was three years or six years. I said, “I’ll take the three years.” Twenty years later I’m still there. I initially enlisted in the Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC). But in 1985, the women of all services were disbanded and merged with the men and depending on your trade we were allocated respective corps. In my case being a clerk, I changed to Royal Australian Army Ordnance Corps (RAAOC).
I had broken service. I completed six years, took my discharge and I went travelling around the world. I came back and needed a job because I had run out of money. I applied to go to Customs and also to go back into the Army. The Army came in first and shortly after Customs said they wanted me. I told Customs I had already been accepted back into the Army so I completed 20 years service.
The biggest hurdle to get through in my first three-year enlistment, to begin with, was I was very shy. My first posting from recruits was the School of Military Engineering – for 12 months – then I went to another Engineer unit at Chowder Bay. This was Water Transportation with a mixture of men and women which made integration a lot easier compared to the school where there were only a handful of women.
That posting was the best posting I’d ever had. It was right on Sydney Harbour – it was beautiful watching all the ship go by.
My next posting was to Central Army Records in Melbourne Park and I spent 18 months there before I took my discharge and went on my travels again. I was brought up in New Guinea and so had been travelling all my life backwards and forward to Sydney so I caught the travel bug early in life and it hasn’t stopped!
When I re-enlisted for the second term I went to Oakey – the Aviation Centre. In the course of my Army career, I went from Engineering to Water Transportation, Aviation and feel I touched on a lot of areas in the Army. I had a great time.
I would encourage people to join one of the forces. Even if you’re only in for a short enlistment period, you have a camaraderie that lasts a lifetime. That’s what makes it perfect.
This is the story of Judith Walker as told to Carla Edwards.
