It was the Australian Army’s official birthday on Thursday, March 1 and like any birthday a large cake was baked to mark the occasion but because it was the army a sword rather than a kitchen knife was used to make the first cut.
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In another tradition the cake cutting was performed by Singleton School of Infantry’s commandant Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Flanagan and the youngest soldier on the base Private Cody Davis.
The party was held at Currey VC Club – the club for all soldiers at the base from private through to corporal – a place described by Lt.Col. Flanagan as the heart of the unit.
In addition to the birthday cake a special award was presented to Private Cassandra Diggins who joined the army in 2013 and is currently employed in Orderly Room Soldier Support Company. Pte Diggins was awarded the Australian Defence Medal.
Lt.Col. Flanagan took up his new position earlier this year and his return to Singleton in his words completes the circle in his army career.
“I started my career in Singleton in 1993 as a trainee soldier so its great to come back all these years later as Commandant of the School of Infantry,” he said.
“During the intervening years Singleton and the base and the Hunter Valley have changed so much – the development and growth is fabulous, its no wonder our people love deployments to Singleton, so much so they don’t want to leave.”
The other attraction of this deployment according to the Commandant is the wonderful relationship that exists between the local community and the base.
He rated that relationship here as perhaps one the best in the country and that fact added to the demand to obtaining a Singleton posting.
Among his priorities while Commandant will be continuing to grow and enhance that relationship and developing new community initiatives.
Following his initial training in Singleton he was deployed to other bases and eventually undertook officer training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra.
Among the highlights of his career was commanding troops during deployment in East Timor and working with Reservists in Tasmania.
He also listed the important changes he has seen in the army during his career as other highlights for him including the progress of women where today, in the infantry, they can serve on the be front line – in his words be combat armed.
The increasing number of Indigenous soldiers is another positive change for the army, he said.
Singleton provides the initial training for 1000 recruits each year in addition to training 300-400 soldiers in other courses.
It is a very busy training school that also hosts Australian Army Cadets throughout the year.
Building community relations is just one aspect of Lt. Col. Flanagan’s daily work building relationships within the base is also extremely important to achieve and he hopes the regular afternoon get-togethers at the Currey VC Club by all the base personnel will play a role in accomplishing that aim.