With the benefit of military skills gained from the Australian Army Cadets before they were disembodied from the national defence system, David has been a soldier for most of his life, having progressed to the regular army in January of 1975. As an infantry scout through to section commander, marksman, parachutist, and as a senior non-commissioned officer in the Intelligence Corps, he gained an appreciation of unit and military history from veterans of WWII through to the present day and a working knowledge in combat intelligence, counter intelligence and strategic intelligence.
In his more than four decades in army boots he has been deployed overseas and affected by the myriad of army reorganisations and political effects on Australia’s national security capability with a hands-on perspective.
David’s background allows for an honest appreciation of the varied researched and publicly available publications related to Australia’s security standing, and the primary influences upon it. A genuine concern over what appears to be a trend of politically and ideologically inspired misinterpretation of history, either intentional or not, gave rise to the compilation of a manuscript for publication.