They grew up with largely absent fathers who’d been called to serve their country in Afghanistan in the wake of September 11.
While those elite soldiers were engaged in enemy combat, their children lived in fear of Dad being killed or injured.
Now those children are adults, and they’re sharing their stories of how Australia’s commitment to a distant theatre of war altered their adolescence and shaped who they are today.
Stateline / By Georgy Sides
My dad . . .
. . . always seemed to belong to everyone. When he was in Afghanistan, he was serving his country and when he was home his time was split between everyone in his life.
When I was nine, my class made Christmas decorations for our parents, but my dad had already gone on tour and wouldn’t be back until the following year.
I made an angel from Styrofoam and put it in a parcel to send to him. It was already falling to pieces when I packed it and I wasn’t sure how interested my dad would be in a Christmas angel that would probably arrive in January, but we taped up the box and posted it.
Almost a year later, after dad had come home, he had to stop into the training office at the barracks to pick something up. My brother and I tagged along.
Canvas has a pungent smell when there’s a lot of it in a room. The floor was covered in army green ropes and straps and big plastic trunks. The walls were cluttered in overlapping maps and documents and posters of half-naked tattooed biker chicks.
But behind my dad’s desk, my crappy angel was pinned to the wall, wings extended and perfectly preserved.
The full story is available.
Credits
Words and pictures: Georgy Sides
Additional photography: Kenith Png
Production: Andrea Mayes, Gian De Poloni
Editor’s note: Some of Georgy’s friends’ names have been changed to protect their father’s identity.
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