SGT Jaxon’s Excellent Adventure
First stop, as for any soldier
was to be issued a uniform and
Jaxon’s was especially made by
Renee Perkins from the Geckos
Family Centre sewing group.
The gesture particularly moved
Jaxon’s mum, Mel, who said
she felt Jaxon, his father Lance,
brother Jarrod Bennett and nephew
Ethan Petty had been made a
part of the Army “family”.
A ‘Day in the Life of a Soldier’
followed hosted by 3RAR.
Jaxon proved well up to the
challenges they presented him,
ranging from fi eld craft to tactics.
What kid doesn’t like animals?
Jaxon was introduced to some
of the 3Bde unit mascots - WO1
Courage, 2Cav Regt’s wedge-tail
eagle, Woolley, the 3CER dingo
mascot, and LCPL Septimus Quintus,
the shetland pony mascot at 1RAR.
Jaxon soon made friends of them all.
As the sun rose next morning, he
was on the water skippering an Army
LCM8 landing craft on Cleveland Bay
and assisting with man-overboard
drills before catching a speedy
Sharkcat (which he had a chance to
drive) back to Ross Island Barracks.
If messing about on the water was
fun it was about to go to a whole new
level, an elevated one, in a ‘chopper’.
18 | AUGUST 2017