Happiest helping others
Legacy volunteer Desley Alexander. Picture: SHAE BEPLATE
STARTING out in the navy before moving into the police service and now working in Defence, Desley Alexander knows what it means to serve her country and community.
Joining the navy in 1987 straight out of high school, she was a self-confessed “frontrunner” at a time when not many females were on naval vessels.
Serving for 18 years as a naval police coxswain (navy military police), she also worked in the naval investigative service, taking her to bases in most Australian states.
A four-year stint in the public service followed, before Ms Alexander joined the Queensland Police Service as a civilian watch house officer in 2010.
“I had the same powers of a police officer inside the watch house,” she said. “We served. I didn’t do warlike service, but it’s still a family.
“Serving Australia was just something I always aimed for, that’s all I had set on my mind, that or to be a teacher, so any role was giving back to the community.
“(Service) is just part of your everyday life and even now I think if you’re 10 minutes early, you’re 10 minutes late, you’re organised, and you bring that into your own children.”
Her service is now a legacy for her children. Her 24-yearold daughter has been in the navy for four years and her 16-year-old is thinking of joining the RAAF.
But when it runs in your family, it also runs in your blood; Ms Alexander is seven months into a stint as a public servant in the ADF and a Legacy volunteer.
She said she joined the charity organisation because she felt like it was time to give back.
“It’s giving back to these poor ladies who now have lost husbands,” she said.
“I look after a 94-year-old lady but you’re also seeing 30and 40-year-olds that have lost their partners, and young children left behind.
“I never did warlike service but I feel so sorry for those families losing people to suicide, to anything, and if they can spend a couple of hours a week having a chat (with a Legacy volunteer), and if that helps, so be it.
“To make one person happy makes it a little bit easier for them each day.”