I’m Colonel Alison Creagh, I’m in the Australian Army, I’ve served for twenty four years and at the moment I am a student, but I’m really privileged to have been deployed on four operations in my career. My first operation was to Cambodia as part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, helping to deliver free and fair elections for the people in Cambodia. My second operations was to East Timor as part of the international force in East Timor; INTERFET, then I also more recently deployed to Iraq for a short time and I’ve just come back from a nine month deployment in Afghanistan as part of the international security assistance force in Afghanistan where I worked on the headquarters of the operation.
The most satisfying part of my career is actually deploying on operations. I’m very privileged to have served on four operations; it’s what we trained for it’s what… when I joined the Australian Army, I never thought I’d have the opportunity to deploy offshore people that are in nations that are not so secure and are really suffering. I never thought I have the opportunity to provide assistance to them to try and make their lives better, to try and give them a secure and safe environment. So for me I found that particularly rewarding and I feel like I contribute every day as part of the Australian Defence Force as an Australian Army Officer but particularly when I’ve been deployed it’s been fantastic.
I think there are about six or seven female Colonels in the Australian Army at the moment, we have one female Major General and two female Brigadiers. I have to say that it’s been a fantastic career for me and it continues to be a fantastic career, it’s interesting, it’s challenging, there’s lots of things that you can do, you make a difference, you get a chance to experience the most amazing things, go to amazing places, make brilliant friends and really it’s just a fantastic opportunity, a great career and I would encourage anyone that’s interested in joining the Army or any of the services but particularly the Army to take on the challenge, because it’s worth it.