Comedy of Errors: Part I

By Carol Evans

This first book takes me from my early days at the Australian Defence Force Academy when considering women to be equal in the forces was relatively new. Similarly, the Australian Defence Force Academy was still generally a new establishment, with the doors opening in 1986. I arrived in 1999, when it was the first year that there was such a high number of females in the intake. The years at the Australian Defence Force Academy were unique for a female and, in some respects, quite challenging. These challenges provided the grounding for our future careers. This first part takes me from my Australian Defence Force Academy days, my introduction to sea life, and participation in development of policy for ships and submarine being designed for the embarkment of women, my life at sea and future life in intelligence. I was to go on to be the senior watch officer and acting operations officer for the Australian Joint Intelligence Centre Watch Floor, where I was briefing admirals and generals on a daily basis. I also gained some valuable NSW police friends that provided me with unique experiences at a time they were going under corruption review. It was a challenging road, where I worked alongside clearance divers and submariners, experienced sexual abuse, and was later rewarded with a representational posting to Hawaii. Along my journey, I have met some remarkable people and some manipulators that hid behind the uniform. It was these very experiences, I believe, that led to my change in life, which can only be described as a comedy of errors, with myself ending up in the Middle East basically living on the streets after completing seventeen years in the Royal Australian Navy (Intelligence), Master of Islamic Studies and Masters of International Relations (Nuclear Security), and being placed in prison in Austria only to end up working for the Australian government in Australia training corrections staff and prisoners and again facing life on the streets. Apparently my studies, experiences, and skills do not mean anything in Australia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jul 31, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503507937

Carol Evans

Gerda Christensen was born in Denmark and grew up in the Jutlandish countryside. In 1969 she immigrated to Surrey, British Columbia together with her husband and four children. A few years later they became Canadian citizens. Gerda has always been interested in the Scandinavian folklore, which gave her the idea to write the children’s books, Troll Peter’s Adventures. Carol Evans is a very talented artist. Together with her husband, Bryn King, she lives on Saltspring Island, British Columbia. Carol started her career by illustrating children’s literature, but soon shifted direction. Today she paints a variety of subjects. However, most of her watercolors portray the beautiful, rugged west coast of British Columbia. Over the years she has held many successful exhibitions, her paintings being popular with art collectors. Every canvas Carol touches with her brush comes alive – whether the theme is a rugged shoreline, children playing in a meadow, or a troll family living in the Danish moorland.

Book preview

Copyright © 2015 by Carol Evans.

ISBN:      eBook         978-1-5035-0793-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 07/29/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

720926

PREFACE

I am Lieutenant Commander Carol Evans of the Royal Australian Navy Reserve. I have completed a Bachelor of Science (Information Systems), Masters in Islamic Studies and Masters in International Relations focusing on Nuclear Security. I transferred to the reserves in 2006 after being a Seaman Officer and an Intelligence Officer. I have driven ships, held Top Secret Clearances, represented Australia on an exchange posting with the United States Navy, trained Australian Defence and Civilian Intelligence staff as well as trained Intelligence staff from South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East and travelled extensively in the Middle East, Europe, United States of America and South East Asia, yet at writing this it seems that I gave all as I have been left with nothing and my name has been tarnished. I would just like to offer some facts in my defence as to why I have been left in such a predicament. It is a bit of self-analysis, a chance to share some enlightening experiences and a chance for my daughter to one day know her mother. I don’t write to make myself an angel as I am not perfect but doubt that my current predicament is really in the best interest of my daughter, myself or those along the way that tried to assist me. It is not a book for admiration but for clarification as I feel it has been a career that without pointing the finger can only be described as a comedy of errors. To give the complete picture and perhaps an understanding for my current predicament I have taken my story back to my introduction to Defence and defence life. This really began at the Australian Defence Force Academy. I wanted to study law but they did not offer it so I took the next best thing, Bachelor of Science.

I applied for an Australian Defence Force Academy Scholarship in 1987. By this time I had been in the Royal Australian Navy cadets for three years, Training Ship Bundaberg and was motioning towards a career either in the Royal Australian Navy or the Police Force. The Royal Australian Navy won in my instance. My application for the scholarship was successful and I received the high sum of $400 at beginning of 1988. The following year I believe the scholarship went up to either $1000 or $2000. But that is life isn’t it. But at the end of the day, the scholarship process gave each applicant a chance to go through the selection process for the Australian Defence Force Academy. Those that were successful did not have to build those towers again, talk to the psychs or do any of the group team building with people watching their every move again for entry into the Australian Defence Force Academy. Those that were not successful, if they were still interested could go through the testing again the following year for entry selection. For the successful recipients of the scholarship, they still had one academic year to complete and were still required to achieve the appropriate academic score to ensure that they met the University of New South Wales entry requirements for their selected degree stream.

For me, I achieved what I needed and had also applied to the University of Queensland for a Bachelor of Science degree as well as the Australian Maritime College in Tasmania with one of the Australian Shipping lines. I felt as though I had my bases covered. On accepting my place at the Academy and prior to arrival to the Academy in January 1989 and with foresight that there might be light at the end of the tunnel I chose to contingency plan just in case that light was extinguished. I deferred from both, University of Queensland for two years and The Australian Maritime College for one year in case it did not work out with the Academy.

For the Christmas break of 1988 before embarking on my trek south my mother took me for a well-earned break north. It was to be my first of many overseas trips. We flew to Singapore and Hong Kong, spending three days in each place. It was a fantastic trip, my first overseas and an introduction to an Asian culture that I was later to come to appreciate and embrace. Oh and the shopping was great. The streets of Singapore and Hong Kong normally are magically lit of a night with lanterns, fairy lights and advertisement lights but during Christmas time, the streets become magical in appearance in some respects mesmerising for all that look upon them. For me, I went hand in hand with my $400 scholarship money and picked up one of those skirt suits that many were to wear on our arrival in Canberra. It was my first suit and something that made me feel comfortable wearing. Even in 1988, that $400 did not really stretch too far, the $1000 or even $2000 would have been more appropriate for my shopping trip. It was also a good time to spend some solid time with my mother before heading off and starting my career. Unfortunately or should I say fortunately I did not wear that suit for my flight down but chose to wear a long skirt and blouse that I had made at school, it was something that I received good marks for and considering the luggage that I had to carry, would not restrict my movements or crush in transport. One of my class mates on arrival wore a suit like the one I bought, but managed to rip the skirt trying to carry her luggage to her accommodation block which was a bit of a trek up a hill from where the buses dropped us at the Academy. My trek to the accommodation block although I did not rip my clothes was just as challenging. The male cadet escorting me to the accommodation block offered to help me so carried my handbag leaving me to carry a large suitcase and ironing board in a skirt and high heels. There were no wheels on the suitcase – if only they were standard issue on a suitcase in those days as I am sure I looked quite funny struggling with both. But this was to be equality and I would not have expected anything more.

1989-1991 Attendance at the Australian Defence Force Academy.

I remember the first day like it was yesterday. It was the 20 January 1989. The contingent from Queensland, the whole 40+ of us flew from Brisbane airport to Canberra airport on the one flight. Over a third of the contingent was female and I was one of them. It was the first year that so many females had made it through the selection process. Before, females were seen as a minority, now they were about to be seen as equal, but not before being significantly challenged emotionally, physically on both professional and personal fronts.

On arrival at Canberra airport we were all ushered on to buses with the logo down the side, Australian Defence Force Academy for our short transit from the airport to the Australian Defence Force Academy or ADFA, as we all became to know it. On disembarking the plane, chivalry was out the window, we were equal, and females were carrying, dragging large suitcases in high heels and short mini skirt suits. It was hard to look feminine but we were entering a male dominated field, femininity was to be left to the anatomy. We all had only one suitcase and many people had brought their own ironing boards as well as the irons that we were told to bring. It was really a funny sight, young sixteen to eighteen year olds carrying their own, or should I say dragging their own suitcases and ironing boards towards the buses and ultimately placing them on the bus. All trying to look professional, after all we were about to attend the prestigious Australian Defence Force Academy, where it had been drummed into us by the various recruitment centres that only the elite of Australia’s 16-18 year olds attended. Many were recipients of the monetary scholarships the previous year as an incentive to keep to our chosen path. It also meant that they had their families and schools bragging of their achievements for twice as long. Were our heads twice as big – probably!

The schools especially if they were from a small country town, acknowledged publicly via school assemblies or local newspapers of our achievements and our selection at the elite Australian Defence Force Academy. It was something the schools could use to have the younger grades to aspire to and still is, irrespective of what is read within my story. It is not a one off story of hardship or abuse and in some respects I fell into a culture of alcohol abuse that placed me in positions of vulnerability. I don’t identify with alcohol being an excuse for my actions or actions of those around me but it was definitely a factor. For me, my selection story was placed in the local paper. I got to sit on a rock with three other girls that had been selected from Bundaberg the same year. The photo with a little nice blurb was placed in the local paper. It was nice to be recognised for our achievements and at that time the Academy was still new and still highly regarded.

With regards to my previous comments about alcohol not being an excuse it can not be identified as justification which seemed to be the case for what I experienced and what many of my colleagues had experienced. Just because a female is intoxicated does not make it right to have sex with her even after she has said no or has been put to bed. Similarly a female has a choice she can be the victim she can relive it every day in suffering, something that court cases do or she can move on with her life. Sometimes when she chooses to move on with her life it is as if the rape was now consenting between two adults. This has the result of some being deemed as sluts or the term at the academy was squids. Most females put on a face and put up with the gossip, comments and abuse. You can laugh it off or you can fold, we only had two choices. Especially when we witness frequent incidents that would go unpunished with the female ending up either crumbling, failing or embracing the situation and basically becoming a bitch. But what I have described was a culture that was not restrictive to the Australian Defence Force Academy, after all date rape, which is what it really is, was common and no doubt still common in most universities. It is just that the public usually are not paying the wages through their taxes of the perpetrators. And as no defence to them, they were usually drunk when they committed the offences. Drunkenness, along with the hype of being the elite of the elite of high school graduates equated to ‘God’s gift to women.’ But this book is not about hatred to all men or hatred to all Australian Defence Force Academy graduates or hatred towards a system that in many cases failed many females and males, it is how the system through all its faults shaped my path towards completing two masters degrees, one in Islamic studies and the other International Relations with a focus on Nuclear Security and ending up spending a couple of years in the Middles East and Europe before returning to Australia with nothing to show for my efforts except experiences that I would not want anyone else to experience. It is interesting though considering my intelligence training background that prior to my return I was jailed and on my return I was drugged and sent bankrupt but ended up working in a prison system with a focus on security systems and providing education to prisoners. Especially considering the situation with our current prison system inadvertently hiring a known drug dealer from Europe as a prison guard and the apparent experimentation being conducted on soldiers returning from war zones being experimented on with psychiatric drugs. Both of which I seemed to have been briefed on through various conversations and although not my choice had first hand experience to be able to make educated comments upon. But then again I really did not have a lot of choices with my career, I seemed to get knocked down quite often and enter an area that was undergoing change, was high profile or was representative of an issue that might not be in the interest of the Australian Defence Force or Government. For some reason, I always would enter being the under dog, be disregarded but end up with all the information about the situation and those involved then moved as change was beginning or about to occur. The movement for me was usually after an incident that I was involved/placed in to ensure that where ever I moved to I would be seen as the under dog again. Do I have anything to be proud of – I would say yes, but I was not perfect and through writing this book welcome feedback good or bad from those mentioned in it as I know I can justify what I have written but am happy to take negative criticism as that encourages debate and perhaps debate can bring learning for myself and others.

This book is a chance to explain to my daughter, why she lost her mother, Well the only way her mother can make any sense of the events that led up to my departure from her and the events surrounding my return to Australia. I always tried with my career and was never negatively reported on, I did have challenges as stated incidents but considering the incidents was always placed in higher profile positions that had access to higher ranking officers, policy, responsibility and information and on my departure from the permanent Defence Force, access to overseas locations where I was regularly placed in places under the view of senior police and defence officers in overseas countries. It was at my transition from permanent to the Royal Australian Navy Reserve where I lost my daughter and it is because of this loss that I am writing this book, as the story surrounding our separation does not really align with the facts. When I lost my daughter I always put my respect for her first and as such ended up being shown some amazing things, experiencing things that no woman would ever want to experience and seeing the efforts that are being made by some very good people around the globe to ensure the future of my daughter and her global friends, our children. By choosing this path, it made it very difficult for myself but then I could not have it any other way, even though the pain was very high for me I would find a way to deflect it which I guess gained the respect of others for them to allow me to experience things in the way I experienced them. I owe a lot of people gratitude and do respect other cultures, religions, beliefs and human life. However for me personally without sharing with my daughter or experiencing her life I have never felt whole. I know that parents reading this will understand. This is not a sad book, it is not for tears I do that in my own time, this is a comedy of errors based on fact. I have made light of some of the situations I was placed in, and in some respect showed a humorous side but in fact there was a lot of pain and a lot of crying. I really don’t want to remember the pain and do not really want to share it but want to show these experiences in a comical light. Because at the end of the day, pain in some respects is good, it is a learning experience and is an emotion that we at sometime do need to experience to appreciate the better things in life. If you can look back at painful experiences and laugh then you got through and you are a stronger person for it. Those or the elements that perpetrated the pain no longer can hurt you again.

Chapter One

The Early Years

Arriving at the Australian Defence Force Academy. The first day saw us being allocated to divisions. There were 23 divisions that aligned to 23 accommodation blocks. It was communal living where four cadets were allocated a wing on a floor that shared a bathroom and a laundry. Each had a lockable room that also held a safe and a lock for their rifle. Each block could hold 48 cadets. There were three divisions to each squadron. The accommodation blocks were only new as the Academy only opened in 1986. There were no requirements for lifts as each block was only three storeys high and after all we were the elite so why would we be taking a lift for anyway? I was allocated to 21 Division Foxtrot Squadron, it was the further-est division from the Assembly Hall, the location that we congregated in and were welcomed by senior Military Officers. On receiving my allocation a young Air Force Cadet came over to me and informed me that I was to collect my bags and follow him to the Division. On retrieving my bag from the really nice line we had placed our bags in on disembarking the buses, he asked if I wanted a hand with my things. I said that would be nice. He carried my handbag and left me with my oversized and over packed suitcase. It put a smile on my face at the time as it still does today. He was a remarkable person and I know that he went on to have a great career. I proceeded to push my bag up the hill to the Division.

That first week, referred to as the induction week, was for the first years (me and my fellow new acquaintances) to become acquainted whilst being yelled at for not meeting tasks allocated in the appropriate time frame or to the appropriate standard. Friendship’s at the start were not apart of the picture, we only had time for cleaning, sharing advice on cleaning and keeping our mouths closed when third years (the senior cadets), staff or anyone else of importance was to pass by. The tasks allocated to us were the basics, cleaning and turning up at specified places within unrealistic time frames. The aim I guess was to instil a sense of urgency in us as well as encouraging us to develop strong bonds for teamwork between the three or two other first year cadets that shared specified living areas. Strong bonds not necessarily friendships at the start. There was little sleep in the first week and on the 24 January 1989 (short week but it might as well have been a month) we knew our way around the Division, the Squadron and the Academy.

Before the Academic year could commence for us we were required to complete a couple of months of military training. This training consisted of a lot of what we had learnt in the first week, drill instruction, physical training and testing to get people up to the minimum standard of fitness required to pass the Australian Defence Force Fitness Test. It also consisted of Military briefs and instruction on Military history, law, etiquette and some live firing exercises with our rifles. I remember being on the range conducting a live firing lying on the ground next to one of the male army first year cadets. I believe that during the live firing I was shooting on his target instead of my own as he had more bullet holes in his than he fired and well my target they could use again. He would later become my boyfriend during my Academy days and would go on to become part of the SAS. Guess they were impressed with his firing ability to attract bullets to his target. During this time we were also required to split into our various services and conduct Single Service Training. For the Navy Officers, this meant going to HMAS CRESWELL at Jervis Bay. It is located in a Cove on the New South Wales Central Coast. There we were given instruction on Maritime and Royal Australian Navy history and career guidance. We also went sailing a lot, a necessity and a luxury when after all the sea was to be our future office. There was also a day allocated to going to sea on various RAN ships for a day to experience real Navy life. For our army compatriot cadets, well they got to go into the Australian bush and basically dig holes and live off ration packs and for our Air Force cadets, well they got to go to some Air Force base and watch other people fly. At the end of the Single Service Training we joined back together at the Academy with the second and third year cadets to undergo rigorous Drill Training. Learning how to walk in a synchronised format with our fellow Cadets whilst carrying a Rifle to show our family and friends what we have learned which was to be displayed at an open day and parade for family and friends before commencing the academic year. A parade consolidating the military drill training that we had spent so much of our time learning. The parade at the beginning of the year is for the first year cadets and their families whilst another similar parade is