Buried beyond history

[Private_collector]

Yes, please do show us the memorial. This is a very interesting and tragic part of Aust history I had not heard about before......ever!

[hrpearce]

As Howard said the story is well known in this area and has been on the news regularly in the past few years since the new memorial was unveiled.

[Shane]

I wounder how many lives have been lost at Kapooka since the day it began. Would not have a clue if this is right or not or it was said to give us the "shits" but we were told that 16 young men had taken their lives there. Maybe, maybe not who knows.

[Marc Montgomery]

It is a tragic fact that even today, every year in military training exercises, someone dies. It is a testament to the inherent dangers of the profession. They are all heroes in my opinion whether they are serving the country at war, or practice during peace...it's always dangerous, they are always putting themselves in harms way in service of their country.

[Howard]

G'Day All,
So I pulled up to have a look and take some photos.
Very long dried grass on the road side... Watch for wriggly sticks!
Now, just step over this stock fence... Watch the barbed wire!
Here it is! Bugger! Not it! All this time, I was wrong...
So I have done some research, and now know the precise location. Next visit to Wagga I'll snap some photos, I promise.
Meanwhile, have a look at this... YouTube Video
about the book available on the subject, by Andrew Johnston, has been recently published. Link to Book page.

[Little Jo]

Hi Howard

Thank you so much for posting the Y-tube clip. It is very moving and one questions why it always takes us so long to tell the story. When I located and read the story I knew I had to post it for others to read. These incidents should never be covered up, the story however bad should be openly reported and discussed. There have been to many incidents in the Army that are quickly covered up.

LEST WE FORGET.

Cheers

Tony

[maple_leaf_eh]

In 1974 a frag' grenade exploded in a pyrotechnics safety lecture at the Camp Valcartier army cadet summer camp. Six boys died and 54 cadets were injured. << http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10148751-as-you-were>>

It seems a long-service but disinterested Regular Force officer was in a rush to do anything other than teach cadets. Over a span of several days which included a live fire grenade range, crossloading of crates of dummy and live frag grenades, and arriving at the cadet camp. The investigation concentrated on finding out if one of the kids had brought the grenade into the lecture, with no regard for the grieving of teenage boys alone and away from their families. The kids were terrorized by the investigators, and extremely little information or reassurance about the accident. They were civilians wearing uniforms. Although not subject to the Code of Service Discipline, they were ordered not to talk or tell anyone.

The survivors carried tremendous Post Traumatic Stress into the adult lives. Some did not survive or thrive. Others became investigators. The result has only this year been recognition of the accident, the commissioning of a more therapeutic investigation and the possibility of survivors pensions.

I know three of the cadets, either as hometown friends or as reserve acquaintances. If I'd joined cadets a year earlier, I could have been in that lecture.