For Craig Bolwell finding other defence force veterans was like finding his “place in the world”.
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The 59-year-old spent 34 years in the Royal Australian Navy before being medically discharged in 2017.
He had had heart failure and was not allowed to serve after having a pacemaker fitted.
Until then, the defence force was all he had known.
Now he had to find his own way back in the civilian world.
No longer a serving member of the defence force, and not able to just “go back” to being a civilian, he eventually found his new title of “veteran”, a role he is comfortable with.
Craig pretty much spent all of his working life in the Navy.
He joined at the age of 17, following in a long defence force tradition in his family – his grandfather was in the Australian Army in World War II, and his father was in the Australian Air Force.
“I was just going to join the Australian Defence Force... and the Navy was the first to respond,” he said.
His son has gone on to join the Army after him, with a grandson also thinking of joining the ADF.
As part of his time in the Navy, Craig was involved in three tours to the Persian Gulf, during the First Gulf War and the Second Gulf War.
Each tour lasted six months.
His first deployment to the Persian Gulf was in 1991, aboard HMAS Westralia, where the ship acted as a refuelling vessel supporting the HMAS Sydney and HMAS Brisbane.
During this deployment, Australia was fighting for the freedom of Kuwait after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
The HMAS Westralia was based on a refuelling line at sea in the Middle East during this whole deployment.
In 1993, Craig was based on the HMAS Canberra 2, when he was again deployed during the First Gulf War.
This time the duty of those on the ship was to board ships to implement United Nations sanctions on Iraq that related to oil and arms.
The HMAS Canberra 2 was initially based in the Red Sea, with all cargo ships coming into and out of ports boarded and checked.
The crew spent time in ports in Kenya, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.
In 2002, Craig was again sent to the Persian Gulf, this time aboard HMAS Newcastle when Australia’s role was to support the invasion of Iraq.
He was again involved in operations boarding ships coming into and out of the area.
His crew was looking for arms, ammunition, drugs, mines and “anything that could be used supporting Iraq or smuggled in or out of there,” Craig said.
Craig finished out his Navy career patrolling Australian waters north of Darwin for boats carrying illegal immigrants coming to Australia.
While he loved his job, Craig said the work he did there between 2006 and 2016 was the “hardest tempo” work of all of his time in the Navy.
His main role was boarding illegal boats and taking people on to their boat, before transferring them to bigger ships where they were taken to Christmas Island.
Craig said most of the boats he saw during this time were wooden dowels or old timber ferries.
“None were seaworthy, and they were full of vermin,” he said.
Sadly, a lot of the role also involved search and rescue missions or body recoveries after these illegal boats had sunk.
One that sticks with him was a mission off Christmas Island where 200 people from one boat died after it sank.
Only 12 people were rescued alive that day — three of them by Craig’s crew.
All the other bodies still had to be pulled from the water, but it was too late for them.
It was events like this that led to Craig developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
“You’d think it (PTSD) would be from war and people being shot at, but it wasn’t,” he said.
A year after the 200 deaths, Craig received a notice to appear in court for the prosecution of those who had brought the boat to Australia.
“It was that day that I fell apart,” he said.
Six years ago, two years after leaving the Navy, Craig and his wife moved to Arcadia.
In doing so, Craig said they wanted to become part of the community.
So he approached the Shepparton RSL and was immediately met by other veterans and was introduced to veterans’ nights.
“This was really good for my mental health,” he said.
After his first two years out of the defence force, which he described as “being in a haze”, Craig discovered his new title was veteran.
“Once you are in the middle of the two, you go to being a veteran.
“It’s like a transition period. It’s where you find your place in the world.”
Just being around other veterans has helped.
“Your demeanour, actions and reactions changed in service.
“You look at things differently to a civilian.”
Craig had expected to always be in the defence force.
“Being medically discharged, it was like leaving a project unfinished,” he said.
“If it was up to me, I’d (still) have six months to go (in the defence force).
“It’d be my 60th birthday when I’d have to have mandatory retirement.”
Despite veterans being of all different ages, Craig said it was the mateship he liked best.
And being understood by others.
“Sometimes all a veteran needs is someone to listen, who understands, and doesn’t judge the way they say things.
“Because of the experiences they’ve had, they use black humour as a coping tool.
“To others it can seem dire, but it’s a coping mechanism.”
Soon after arriving in Arcadia, Craig was offered work at the Shepparton RSL Veterans Centre and has been there ever since.
He works as a pension advocate, doing pensions and claims for other veterans.
“It’s helped immensely with my mental health,” he said.
“A lot (of veterans) have the same story.
“It’s about being released from the military and you don’t know how to fit into society.
“Being able to help veterans — that helps me.”
And it is not just older veterans the centre helps.
Craig said he saw a lot of veterans from wars in East Timor and Afghanistan — and those he helped were aged all the way from in their 20s to in their 80s.
Their work is also not just confined to locals.
Craig said it had such a good reputation that it was helping people from as far away as Bermagui in NSW, and others from Victoria’s south coast.
“They feel at home with other veterans,” he said.
Craig said all those who staffed the veteran’s centre were all veterans themselves.
As for his time in the ADF, Craig said he loved it.
“Instead of having a gap year, I had a gap lifetime. And I was being paid for it.”
And on this Anzac Day, Craig will be remembering those who died in war and since then.
“Anzac Day shows respect for the fallen — mates who didn’t return home, or who returned home and suicided since,” he said.
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Senior Journalist