"Talisman Saber 2013" is over and I'm back home with my family after a month in Australia. It seemed to good to be true that the Army was sending me somewhere so awesome so I just pretended it wasn't going to happen. But, before I knew it, I was on a plane to Brisbane. My team spent months preparing map products and data for the exercise. The US Army got together with the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Australian forces in order to reenforce our ability to work together. It was a lot of work but in the end we got a few days to go out and see Brisbane and the Gold Coast / Surfers Paradise. Absolutely perfect weather (their winter... highs in the 70's) and really friendly people. Australia seemed pretty much the same as the states except for driving on the other side of the road, a few vocabulary differences, and beans and spaghetti for breakfast.
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| Accepting the "Boomerang" award from SGM Troxell (I Corps Command Sergeant Major) and General Brown (I Corps Commander). Just about everyone got a boomerang but it's still not every day I get my picture taken with these kind of guns! |
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| Cockatoos at the Koala Sanctuary (Brisbane). These things flew around everywhere on base (wild) and screamed liked banshees. My SFC called them the Cockatoo mafia as they were very aggressive towards other birds. |
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| Tasmanian Devil |
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| Desert Dingos (different than the lighter colored mountain dingos) |
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| Ugly Wombat. |
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| Can you see the platypus? |
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| Kookaburra |
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| I'm using this picture to run for president some day... |
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| Wildlife at the botanical gardens in Brisbane. |
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| "City Cat" public transportation in Brisbane |
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| Just happened to see the Mormon Temple on the other side of the river. |
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| Dry dock / Museum - Brisbane. |
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| Foot Bridge |
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| View from Foot Bridge |
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| Man-made beach - Brisbane board walk. |
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| Down-Town Brisbane |
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| Brisbane's free art gallery / museum |
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| Made it to church one sunday |
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| Went to a Rugby game, Sharks vs Broncos. Brutal! It's like red rover for adults, but with a ball. |
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| "Frog Mouth" I saw on my walk to work just about every day (Night Jar). |
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| Lorikeets. There were a lot of these on base and would fly around in large groups making LOTS of noise. |
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| Kookaburra that I saw regularly on base. Pretty hard to get a picture of but easy to hear! I went running a few times in the morning when it was still dark on a road through the trees (training area) and there were a few kookaburras that would start making the craziest noises. I had heard that it was supposed to sound like laughing. However, it was more like psychotic monkey laughter. I little eery but at least it helped me increase my run time. |
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| More cockatoos on base. |
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| Passion fruit for breakfast. I tried just about everything just to experience it and tried biting this like an apple before I realized what it was. Super tasty if you can get past the snot texture with seeds. |
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| Frog Moth "owls" again. They're not really owls. There's 2 there just in case one fooled you with its camouflage. |
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| Brisbane again. I had some time for messing around with a photo-enhancing/ editing app on my phone. I was supposed to be working on homework but there wasn't internet without paying a lot for it. |
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| SFC K. (My section NCO) in the botanical gardens |
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| Sunset on the plane over the Pacific somewhere. |
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| I got to eat breakfast with General Brooks who is the new Army Commander of the Pacific |
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| Gold Coast |
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| Found a new love for Gelato (Italian Ice cream)! |
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| Some of these pictures are a little out of order... |
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| Australian Sergeant "Mess". This is where they get together and drink. |
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| Flying Home over Moreton and North Stradbroke Islands (right off the coast from Brisbane) |
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| Sunrise on the plane over the pacific somewhere. I left Australia at 11 am and made it back to WA at 11 am the same day. Weird. |
