Thirty-four years ago, the initial issue of the Journal of Military and Veterans’ Health (JMVH) (then Australian Military Medicine (AMM)) was published in February 1992. SQNLDR James Ross was the…
Thirty-five years ago, 1872 Australians, including Australian Defence Force (ADF) health personnel, served in the Persian Gulf between August 1990 and the ceasefire in February 1991. While primarily a Royal…
Editorial As we enter 2026, consideration needs to be given to various conflicts and touchpoints around the globe, from Ukraine to South Sudan, Middle East to the South China Sea…
In 2025, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Second World War – the last ‘total war.’ As a country, we are fortunate that we have not seen any further…
In 1961, Edward Carr noted that ‘the past is intelligible to us only in the light of the present, and we can fully understand the present only in the light…
Over the last 85 years, medical support to Special Operations Forces (SOF) units has evolved from rudimentary beginnings to highly sophisticated care. While some of this evolution reflects changes in…
Transformation of War In 1991, Martin van Creveld, in ‘The Transformation of War’, speculated on what the character of war would be in a post-Cold War era.1 His assessment focused…
GAIL BELL, IN HER BOOK “THE POISON PRINCIPLE”, tries to establish why people use poison2. She looks back over the centuries, from Cleopatra and Socrates to more modern poisoners like…
CS IS THE GENERIC NAME FOR the lacrimating agent 0-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (2-chloroben zalmalonitrile), which was originally developed in 1928 by B.B. Corson and R.W. Stoughton1,2 CS is normally solid, which…
THE EXPLOSION AT CHERNOBYL IN 1986 is the best known of the Russia n nuclear accidents. Recently, however, information has become available on other Russian nuclear accidents occurring in the…
SSN- Strategies of Submarine Warfare Tom Clancy Harper Collins: London 1996 This is a fiction work by Tom Clancy based on 'SSN'. a CD-ROM game by Simon and Schuster Interactive.…
Gupta L, Ward J, Hayward RSA. Future directions for clinical practice guidelines: Needs, lead agencies and potential dissemination strategies identified by Australian general practitioners. ANZ J Pub Health 1997; 21(5):…
ANOTHER INTERESTING FORTNIGHT has come to an end, as our ADF ships and personnel pre-deploy to the Gulf. One of the key issues over this period has been the Australian…
'Murder by poisoning is a crime of devilish wickedness and inhumanity which no language can adequately describe. ' John Glaister (1954) Introduction Gail Bell, in her book 'The Poison Principle',…
Leadership and resilience in a crisis I recently presented to the Royal United Services Institute in New South Wales on leadership and resilience in a crisis. I particularly noted that…
After the war The theme for this year’s AMMA conference is “After the War: Repatriation, recovery and public health”. The impetus for this theme was the realisation that 100 years…
D-Day and Binh Ba – 6 June Just over 75 years ago, 7,000 vessels carried 190,000 sailors and 130,000 soldiers across the English Channel to five designated beaches – Utah…
Repatriation In early 1917, even before victory was assured, Prime Minister ‘Billy’ Hughes promised the country’s armed forces that ‘When you come back we will look after you’. Repatriation or…
Wither Nuclear? In this issue, Heslop and Westphalen review medical chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defence in the Australian Defence Force.1 The ongoing interest of militaries and non-state actors…
Battle of the Atlantic On 24 May 1943, Grand Admiral Karl Donitz withdrew his U-boats from the north Atlantic, signalling the end of the Battle of the Atlantic. During that…
On 28th February 1942, HMAS PERTH, a light cruiser, and USS HOUSTON, a heavy cruiser, having survived the Battle of the Java Sea the previous day, stopped briefly in Tanjung…
Editorial – Baros of Sirovi I have just returned to Perth after a month on board USNS Mercy as part of Pacific Partnership 2015. In Bougainville, near the port of…
This issue will probably be arriving in people’s letter boxes just as we are preparing to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Gallipoli landings on 25 April 1914. The battles…
As we move into 2015, we have a unique opportunity to look back to the origins of Australian Defence Force health services 100 years ago, the changes in Defence healthcare…
As we move closer to the 100th anniversary of the start of the Great War, I am constantly reminded of the sacrifices made by our ancestors to fight that war.…
During the recent Australasian Military Medicine Association (AMMA) conference in Adelaide in early November, I was fortunate to stumble upon a nearby antiquarian bookshop, where I found a copy of…
Sixty-eight years ago, on 15 August 1945, hostilities with Japan officially ended at 12 noon. When His Royal Highness Duke of Gloucester made the announcement in Canberra, three flags were…
On the 21 July 1919, the RMO of 30th Battalion AIF, Captain Gordon Robertson demobilised after returning to Australia on the Leicestershire on 21 June 1919. Post demobilisation, he took…
On the 30 July 1918, the RMO of 57th Battalion AIF, Captain Gordon Robertson, wrote to the CO of 57th Battalion re “Health of Men”. In his report, he states:…
The theme for this Edition is the history of developments in military medicine. As I was preparing for this Edition, I was reminded of some letters that I had from…
Welcome to 2012, which promises to be another challenging year, with the London Olympics and the ‘end of the world’ planned. Let’s hope the latter joins the ranks of previous…
The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) has just completed successfully in Perth with the joint assistance of the Australian Government, Australian Defence Force (ADF) and the Western Australian State…
Over sixty years ago, at 4 AM on 25 June 1950, North Korea invaded South Korea. Australian forces were committed rapidly, with the Australian Government sending HMAS Shoalhaven and HMAS…
As I write this Editorial, I am on a flight to Port Hedland and am once again reminded of the size of this country, its often harsh environmental conditions and…
One of the important lessons that all military health personnel should learn early on is that, as originally expostulated by George Santayana, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned…
Billy Bacon couldn’t outrun the German machine gun bullets, although his actions saved the lives of two of his fellow diggers. I have just returned from seeing ‘Beneath Hill 60’,…
Fred Skeeles Victoria Park: Hesperian Press; 2008 (ISBN 978-0-85905-419-5: 151 pages) In September 2000, I reviewed ‘Proud Echo’ by Ronald McKie for Australian Military Medicine1. ‘Proud Echo’ narrated the history…
