RAA Liaison Letter 2025/2026 Edition 21 Saturday emergency response. He received a silver commendation for his performance in establishing and commanding the task group ever created in a reserve Brigade environment. More recently, he has held positions of the Senior ADF Liaison Officer for the Victorian Task Group between COVID & Fires (2019 to 2022). During this period, he represented Defence interests as the Senior ADF Liaison Officer attached to the National task force reporting to the Prime Miniature at the time on the Victorian Aged Care Response Centre during the peak of the pandemic. He was awarded a Gold Commendation for his performance in his exemplary leadership during this deployment. He recently retired from a public servant career in Defence where he spent 20 years working as a Deputy Director or Program Manager within the Capability and Sustainment Group for either Land Systems Division or Electronic System Division. Prior to this, he has 15 years’ experience in supply chain management. He has many volunteer roles such as the President of the Royal Artillery Association of Victoria; a Governor at the Shrine of Remembrance; President of the Sir Thomas Blamey Memorial Trust Fund; previous Director for the Royal Australian Historical Company; the group leader of Berwick Central Scout Group and the Chief Marshal for RSL Victoria responsible for the suite of Anzac Day events in Melbourne. Outgoing Head of Regiment Brigadier Damian Hill, AM, CSC Fellow Gunners. The 8th December 2025 concludes my four-year tenure as your Head of Regiment. It will finish where it started, at the Royal Military College presenting the Urquhart Artillery prize to a future officer of our Regiment. My four years can best be represented through the themes of commemoration, consolidation, modernisation and realisation. Commemoration. In 2022 we came out of the prolonged COVID induced slumber. I had the distinct honour of representing our Regiment at Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the Second’s funeral in London. Alongside four other members of the Regiment, the opportunity to be present at Westminster Abbey, and march in her funeral procession as part of the Commonwealth contingent was a true privilege. It is not lost on me that we represented tens of thousands of gunners who had served during her reign. Later that same year, we undertook a belated 150th birthday celebration at Victoria Barracks, Sydney. The parade and presentation of the QEII banner (the last in her reign) was likely the first time our units were all represented on a parade together for decades, if ever. It is a memory that will live with me forever. Consolidation. 2023 represented a return to soldiering, after a few years supporting bushfires, floods and COVID response. Our units returned to the field in earnest, and I had the pleasure to visit most during the year. Talisman Sabre, Super Garuda Shield and Alon were highlights whereby gunners demonstrated they had lost none of their technical and tactical skills. The Army’s 10th Brigade was coming to fruition, and we worked hard to provide the Chief of Army sub-unit options that truly reflect the nature of the new Long-Range capabilities to initially be delivered to 14th Regiment, RAA. An invitation by the United States Army of the Pacific (USARPAC) to attend their “test of the best” saw a return to gunnery competition, and the RAA dominated in Hawaii. It was the start of what I know will be a long commitment to that activity and I am deeply grateful for my friend and colleague, Colonel Bryan Schott for developing this event during his time as Chief of Division Artillery at the 25th Infantry Division. Modernisation. 2024 was a year of many firsts. The formal creation of the 10th Brigade, Army’s newest formation was a milestone for the RAA and Army. Whilst not a Regimental formation, it represented a return to operational gunnery. I am eternally grateful for the team that led the design and planning for this Brigade, and it was a
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