[Julian Knight continues…]
(On Tuesday 2 June 1987)…Following the appointment with Dr JAMES, my father and I returned to the college and examined my Torana parked in the Kokoda Company car park.
We discovered that the driver’s side front tyre had been let down and that the engine had been disabled by the removal (and theft) of some essential engine parts – the distributor rotor, spark plug leads and other equipment). We later learned that this had been done by some senior cadets.
We then went to my room in the barracks (adjacent Kokoda Company barrack on the ground floor) and discovered that the senior cadets had gained access to my car by using my spare set of car keys, which they had found by searching my room after the stabbing.
Later that morning my father and I met with Major Todd VERCOE (Duntroon Officer Commanding (OC) of Kokoda Company and (Kokoda Company Drill) Sergeant JORGENSON in VERCOE’s office in the (Kokoda) barracks.
When we informed Major VERCOE of what had been done to my car, Major VERCOE reacted with surprise. He said that he knew nothing about the senior cadets tampering with my car or even that they had searched my room.
[Editor’s Comment: Both VERCOE AND JORGENSON habitually turned a blind eye about the continual daily bastardisation antics and criminal behaviour committed by senior cadets towards the junior cadets inside the barracks. Often VERCOE AND JORGENSON were not even present].
Major VERCOE said that he would investigate the matter and ensure that the car was restored to its original condition. [Major VERCO would renege on this undertaking to KNIGHT, forcing KNIGHT to self-fund repairs to the malicious tampering out of his own salary].
On the morning of Wednesday 3 June 1987, my mother flew up from Melbourne, and together with my father, she visited me in the grounds of the 5 Camp Hospital. She was forced, due to work commitments, to return to Melbourne late that afternoon. During the rest of the afternoon, my father and I collected my (by then repaired) Torana and drove it to a garage in Fyshwick to have it serviced. We then spent the evening together around Canberra before I returned to 5 Camp Hospital at around 2100hrs.’
Had Knight kept and restored his SL/R 5000, today it would be a valuable collector’s item.
Knight’s Army-issue uniforms and equipment thieved
KNIGHT: “Another matter which had to be finalized as part of my discharge from RMC was the $250 worth of Army-issue uniforms and equipment that had been stolen from my room in the Kokoda Company barracks while I was in hospital.
Following the stabbing incident, all of my property in the barracks had been removed from my unlockable room and moved into a lockable room in the south wing of the Kokoda Company barracks. I submitted an Army Loss or Damage form that described the missing items and outlined the circumstances of their loss.
Major VERCOE and Under Officer REED had investigated the matter in early June 1987, and their investigation had revealed nothing about the disappearance of the items, nor did it locate any of them. Sergeant JORGENSON assisted with the investigation but he was also unable to locate any of the missing items. As a result, Major VERCOE officially freed me from liability. I, of course, suspected that the senior cadets in Kokoda Company had stolen the items from my room.
I believe that when my father and Major VERCOE attended my room in early June 1987, a senior cadet was in the process of stealing my Army-issue SLR rifle.
As a payback for this theft, I stole a handful of Army-issue items, including a complete set of webbing and a Japara waterproof jacket and trousers set, when I collected my property from the barracks in early June 1987. I later discovered that the items belonged to Staff Cadet Dale BURNSIDE, one of the 2nd Class cadets who had harassed me over the previous months.
On Wednesday 8 July 1987, as part of my discharge from RMC procedure, I was interviewed by the RMC Student Counsellor, Lieutenant-Colonel HALL, in the Student Counsellor’s office next to 5 Camp Hospital. This was the first and only occasion I met with the Student Counsellor. The interview was conducted in private and I was questioned about my 6 months at the college, my opinions about the officer training program, and any suggestions or complaints that I had.
The interview only lasted about 10 minutes and I was very guarded about what I said. I did not believe that I would achieve much by detailing my complaints or recounting my experiences of bastardization. I just wanted to get my discharge procedure completed and return to Melbourne. [Editor Comment: Likewise! ]
I did, however, complain strongly about the joint 2nd Class/3rd Class field exercises saying that “it was a nightmare going on exercise with 2nd Class.”
[Editorial Comment: Duntroon seriously fostering trust, loyalty, respect and individual commitment and team spirit within the training platoon ranks? NO! From direct experience, Duntroon training is about negative leadership (think of the movie Full Metal Jacket). Instead, and bizarrely, Duntroon inculcates amongst its budding junior Army ‘officer’ cadets within their very own platoon ranks levels (3rd Class, 2nd Class and 1st Class) over its now condense d18 months (from 4 years) a hyper-rushed, wafer-thin useless military training – attributes of mutual distrust, animosity, hatred, contempt, resentment and mutiny, else AWOL to escape the crap. Guilty as charged! ]