Army Reserve Private Jasmine Kent

Where are you from and what do you do?

My name is Jasmine Kent and I come from Queensland, Brisbane in Queensland. I’m here on a reserve base. I’m a driver in transport for the Reserves.

What things did you experience in your first week of training?

It was a huge culture shock when first we got here. We all met on a bus, we all got off the bus here at Kapooka about a week and 1 day ago. We got off the bus. We’ve learnt everything, basically. These 16-hour days are huge. We were taught everything from drill, which is your marching, equipment use - handling, firing weapons, fitness – a lot of fitness and a lot of bonding. Your mateship is a really important thing here as well.

How do you feel about the experience?

Ah, I’m loving it. The first week I thought, the first few days were a big shock, you’re shellshock a bit. But I’m loving every minute of it, everything that we’re learning. I’ve become a lot more tolerant, I feel. There’s just, there’s people here that are just so experienced and have so much to teach you and you’ve got so much to learn. I just can’t wait for the next day really.

What are you looking forward to doing in the future?

In the future, ah, well, I plan to be in the reserves for as long as I can, to serve as long as I can. I have a full time job outside of the Army. I also play a lot of sport, it’s just a home away from home basically. So I just plan to hang in there, work my way up, and work my way around for as long as I can.

What is your regular full time employment?

I work for a company called Translink. It’s a government job. I give out public transport information. I’m also playing a lot of soccer as well so I’m traveling a fair bit with soccer. So I’ve got full on, it’s all very packed for me. The reserves it’s just, it fits in quite nicely.