The Cadet Under-Officer
Page 44
Bargheese watched him coming, then turned and began to run. Graham moved faster but took care until he was down on the flat. Then he unbuckled his webbing and dropped it and set off in pursuit. Bargheese ran straight towards Lt McEwen’s group who all scattered for cover. Graham thought they might shoot him but Cpl Sheehan and Halyday saw he was unarmed and jumped up shouting.
Bargheese saw them and veered away, running in sheer blind terror. Graham came racing grimly on his tail and Cpl Sheehan and Halyday both joined the chase while the others cheered. They came out onto the Gravel Road at its bend. Bargheese ran straight down the road toward the river. As he ran he kept looking back fearfully.
Graham could feel himself slowing. He was exhausted and his muscles were cramping. ‘Bargheese is getting away!’ he thought.
Graham had his rifle but was loath to use it. Then he cautioned the other two not to close with their quarry.
Bargheese looked back, saw that he was drawing ahead and then suddenly stopped, only a hundred metres from the river bank.
Up the road from the river bed had appeared a police car. It screeched to a halt and dust billowed round it. Bargheese looked both ways seeking desperately for an escape, saw Roger and some of his group running in from the left and realized it was hopeless. His shoulders sagged and he dropped the brown notebook in the dust. Graham came to a halt ten paces from him but didn’t even bother to aim the rifle. His enemy was well and truly a beaten man.
Two uniformed policemen with pistols climbed out of the car, then a man in white shirt and tie and then Graham saw the grinning face of Captain Conkey. Graham grinned back through a haze of dizziness and exhaustion. Captain Conkey’s head was bandaged and his face was cut and bruised. He came and took the rifle and shook Graham’s hand.
“Well done!”
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Six more vehicles arrived. The second of these was an army staff car and out of it stepped Lt Standish, Lt Maclaren (with two black eyes), CSM Brassington and a Major Graham had never seen before. The last vehicle was an ambulance and the other four were police vehicles, both State and Federal.
The cleaning up began. After Graham had given a quick explanation two police cars sped off to the mine camp and one to the airfield. Graham gathered his platoon under the trees on the river bank and they unloaded all the weapons and checked them safe before piling them into the boot of the first police car.
Four police and an ambulanceman went to help Margaret and Walsh down, and to locate Berzinski. A police helicopter arrived and was sent to locate the vehicles trying to escape towards the Yabby Track. An army helicopter landed and the injured were whisked off to hospital. Among these was Berzinski who wasn’t dead, much to Graham’s relief, and an illegal immigrant with a pistol bullet in him. Margaret refused to go, saying her ribs weren’t broken, only bruised. There was no way she was going to leave Graham now!
Margaret sat happily next to him while he recounted their adventures to an incredulous audience. The Staff Major, Federal Police Superintendent and State Police Inspector were even more amazed after a tour of inspection. Captain Conkey and the Officers of Cadets weren’t. They knew the worth of their cadets and were mightily proud of what they had done. Their training had paid off in a most unexpected way.
The QM arrived in a bus with CUOs Bell and Copeland.
“Where’s Peter?” Graham asked.
“In hospital. Bargheese shot him,” Stephen replied. He saw the horror on Graham’s face and quickly added. “He’ll be alright. He’s got a bullet through his shoulder. He was wrestling with one of those security guards while Barbara here made her escape. You should have seen her kick that Berzinski bastard where it really hurts, then flatten your mate Bargheese!”
“They sound like they haven’t had a very good 24 hours those two,” Graham laughed. He gave Margaret a squeeze which made her wince. “Margaret kicked Bargheese in the face and clobbered him with a rock, then knocked the bastard over a cliff.”
“And I hear you shot Berzinski,” Barbara grinned. “I shot one of the mongrels too.”
Graham then learned what had happened back at the company bivouac. After Bargheese had flown out in the helicopter leaving only Falls, Vincent and Lewis as guards there had been a stalemate which dragged on for hours. Mrs Standish, Lt Maclaren and the CUOs had used all their powers of persuasion to convince the crooks to clear out and to allow them to get the injured cadets to medical treatment but had failed. The crooks were more scared of Bargheese and the criminal bosses than of the police.
As the sun was setting Falls had lost radio contact with Bargheese and this had made the crooks very restless. When night fell they had turned on the vehicle headlights to keep watch on the cadets. At some stage Lewis had slipped away into the darkness and his desertion made the other two argue.
The OC had regained consciousness by this and told them to leave. While he did so they had heard an aircraft fly past to the north of them and the two crooks had suddenly jumped into their Landcruiser and driven off, only to be stopped on the Canning Road by the police who were being led in by Barbara.
The CSM had made it to the army camp and soon had the QM making telephone calls. The State Police were already suspicious so didn’t take much convincing but the Federal Police still hadn’t received the letters. Luckily Barbara had the OC’s letter still in her pocket. They described how the injured were taken to hospital and all the mine people in the area rounded up.
At that point Graham interrupted. “Yes, but if that was 10:30pm what took you so long to get here?”
Captain Conkey answered. “Well, we got your radio check at about then and assumed you were alright. We tried to call you all night but not another word.”
Barbara looked sheepish. “My fault. I had your coded message about going to the Black Pig’s Lair and thought you were just hiding in the rubber vines somewhere up Dingo Creek.”
Captain Conkey continued: “The Federal Police didn’t arrive until nearly midnight and they agreed there was no point in risking lives in the dark so they just set up roadblocks and planned a dawn move.”
“But what about the planes?” Graham asked.
“Nobody knew about the twin-engine job flying in, only about the Cessna and helicopter. All airports were alerted but as they didn’t have the range to fly out of the country there was no great concern,” Captain Conkey replied.
Graham puzzled over this but later realized the information on the overseas flight had been in the brown notebook and in the letter to the Federal Police.
The QM had brought rations and breakfast was prepared. After that they were driven back to the army camp. In the bus Graham sat next to Margaret holding her hand until he nodded off to sleep with his head on her shoulder.
Elizabeth was reunited with her anxious parents in Charters Towers and did have the good grace to say ‘Thank you.’
For Graham, Peter, Stephen and Margaret it was their last Annual Camp in the Cadets. They all voted it far and away their best.
Author’s note
The characters in the novel are entirely fictitious. Any resemblance to anyone living or dead is entirely coincidental. The Bunyip River area is also fictitious but the geographical features and environment described may all be found around Charters Towers in North Queensland.
The Australian Army Cadets is a part-time volunteer organisation most of whose members are High School students who devote an afternoon or evening per week and several weekends per year to training, plus their annual camp and promotion courses.
The AAC is a youth development organization with a focus on character building and leadership. The main aim is not to train soldiers. The Army provides some support but this varies from time to time according to the policy of the government of the day. The type and degree of military training also varies from time to time according to government policy and may not, at the time of reading, be the same as the type of training received by the members of this fictitious cadet unit.
This
story was first written by the author when he was a 16 year old Cadet Under-Officer. This was following annual camp at Sellheim in August 1964 and all of the distances and timings CUO Kirk covered are what I actually covered in those five days. The cadet exercises had different scenarios but my youthful imagination could construct fantasies easily which included rescuing a damsel in distress (No girls in cadets in those days!).
The intense emotional reward of leadership inspired me to command my own platoon. In the end I went on to give the Australian Army 28 years of loyal service, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel commanding an infantry battalion- a good return to the country for the cost of maintaining cadets.
In 1988, after my own cadet unit had completed annual camp in the same area I re-wrote the story and as there were girls in cadets by then it was easier to hide Elizabeth away. At that time the mobile phone had not been invented and the only radios were the heavy and not very reliable army ANPRC 77 sets. In this edition the communications have been left at this level.
BOOKS OF THE ARMY CADETS SERIES
The Cadet Coporal
Book 1: The Army Cadets
C.R. Cummings
Now in his 2nd year as Army Cadet, trouble-maker Graham Kirk is faced with the biggest crisis of his cadetship. The annual field camp has begun and over nine gruelling days he will be forced to face challenges and temptations that test his integrity, courage and loyalty to the limit.
Top of the list is Pigsy and his gang, soured by jealousy and resentment. And of course the girls. Will they stand in the way of his promotion to sergeant or will he rise to the challenge and become the leader nobody thinks he can be?
Behind Mt. Baldy
Book 2: The Army Cadets
C.R. Cummings
By the time Graham is in Year 11 he is already the Company Sergeant Major of his cadet unit. When he and his army pals set off on a five day hike to complete the Duke of Edinburgh Award, their expedition leads them into trouble so unexpected and so deadly that it tests all their characters and friendship.
To survive they need to use all their skills as cadets.
The Cadet Sergeant Major
Book 3: The Army Cadets
C.R.Cummings
Fraternisation - improper relationships - was strictly forbidden by the Cadet Policy Manual. As the Company Sergeant Major one of Graham Kirk's main duties was discipline and while he knew that the real supervision was the responsibility of the adult Officers of Cadets he also had a key role to play.
The problem was, could he trust them? Follow the story of an army cadet camp and how Graham and his friends cope with the unexpected problems that beset them.
For cadets and ex-cadets the detail will inform and provide nostalgic flashbacks. Because this is a story about teenagers, and particularly teenage relationships, there are some sexual references and coarse language. This book is written for young adults and is not suitable for Primary School children