After the blast : an Australian officer in Iraq and Afghanistan / Garth Callender.
Publication details: Collingwood : Schwartz Publishing Pty, Limited ; Scoresby : Penguin Group Australia [Distributor], 2015.Description: 247 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : colour illustrations, colour portraits, maps ; 24 cmISBN:- 9781863957380
- Australian officer in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Callender, Garth
- Callendar, Garth
- Australia. Army -- Biography
- Australia. Army -- Biography
- Australia. Army -- Biography
- Biography
- Soldiers -- Australia -- Biography
- Iraq War, 2003-2011 -- Personal narratives, Australian
- Iraq War, 2003-2011 -- Participation, Australian
- Afghan War, 2001- -- Personal narratives, Australian
- Afghan War, 2001- -- Participation, Australian
- 355.0092 23
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Biography | 355.009 CAL | Available | 059111 |
In 2004 Garth Callender, a junior cavalry officer, was deployed to Iraq. He quickly found his feet leading convoys of armoured vehicles through the streets of Baghdad and into the desert beyond. But one morning his crew was targeted in a roadside bomb attack. Garth became Australia's first serious casualty in the war. After recovering from his injuries, Garth returned to Iraq in 2006 as second-in-command of the Australian Army's security detachment in Baghdad. He found a city in the grip of a rising insurgency. His unit had to contend with missile attacks, suicide bombers and the death by misadventure of one of their own, Private Jake Kovco. Determined to prevent the kinds of bomb attacks that left him scarred, Garth volunteered once more in 2009 to lead a weapons intelligence team in Afghanistan. He was helicoptered to blast zones in the aftermath of attacks, and worked to identify the insurgent bomb-makers responsible.