Horrors of war seen first hand
by
This year’s Anzac Day commemoration will be the first in more than 35 years when Warragul’s David Innes has not been an active member of the Australian Defence Force.
Although recently retired, Major Innes’ service as an Army reservist saw him witness the horrors of war and conflict more than most people, a fact often not widely recognised outside of the military.
A qualified registered general nurse Major Innes joined the reserve in 1988 as a medic.
It was the start of a journey that has taken him to senior postings in areas of conflict from East Africa - “The Rwanda Genocide” - and to Timor Leste, the Solomon Islands and Iraq.
Earlier this month marked the 30th anniversary of the start The Rwanda Genocide.
Ten months after the start of the terrorist-led civil war, the then Captain Innes was posted to Rwanda as second-in-charge of the intensive care unit with the United Nations task force and also to support the thousands of orphaned children.
Rwanda was the first of his overseas postings and one for which official estimates put the death toll from genocide at some 800,000 - a figure that Major Innes believes was somewhat understated.
Typical of the vast majority of those that have served in wars, conflicts, peacemaking and peacekeeping operations he speaks little publicly of the traumas and things he witnessed, other than describing Rwanda as his best and worst operational experience.
The worst parts go unsaid; the best were the friends he made and the challenges they faced together.
That experience however, Major Innes said, made a “big change” in him and on his return to Australia transitioned from nursing - he was by then the associate charge nurse at the Alfred Hospital’s Trauma Centre - to a field medicine pathway.
But overseas postings with the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps were far from finished.
He was deployed with 1 Field Hospital to Timor Leste in 2001, to the Solomon Islands the following year, to Banda Aceh in Sumatra, Indonesia, with the ANZAC Hospital following the 2005 Boxing Day tsunami and in 2018 to Iraq as senior nursing officer with an Australian contingent that included an exchange posting to a United States trauma facility in Baghdad.
Back home, his Army Reserve duties saw Major Innes deployed in 2020 as the senior nursing officer of 6 Health Support Company on Operation Bushfire Assist as the military-civilian liaison officer for Eastern Victoria.
He retired earlier this year as officer commanding 6/10 HSC.
Today the retired Major Innes continues as a MICA paramedic at Ambulance Victoria’s Warragul West station and expressed appreciation for the great support he’s had from Ambulance Victoria in meeting his army responsibilities.
Anzac Day for him this year will be a time of reflection, remembrance and the good and the bad of his military experiences.