Show Notes
‘Language leads to culture and then culture leads to understanding.’ In this week’s episode, we talk through what it would be like to deploy to a pacific or southeast Asian nation using Timor as our case study. Our guest – MAJ Guy Warnock– just returned from years in the Defence Cooperation Program (DCP) in Timor-Leste but this is not where his interest in Timor first started. MAJ Warnock deployed to Timor as a Special Forces Operator from the Special Air Service Regiment in the first few months of INTERFET.
MAJ Warnock tells stories about diggers predicting that the Australian Army would end up in Timor years beforehand, troopers itching for any information that they could find before flying into Dili, including learning Bahasa in the halls of Swanbourne Barracks from a tape player and how his force element equipped themselves before deploying. To the soldiers that first deployed to Timor on INTERFET, this was the main event.
Commanders now need to encourage all soldiers to learn a language. Language leads to culture and culture leads to understanding. Allowing soldiers to learn a language like Bahasa or Tetum and then seeking opportunities for them to deploy on Mobile Training Teams or post to DCP will build the soldiers we need for the fighting of tomorrow. Lean into the qualifications, interests and expertise that you already have in your team because you may be surprised at what each member can offer. Make a deliberate effort to force continuity in command. Large changeover of commanders and their staff make it incredibly difficult to build highly functional teams that can deploy into volatile and uncertain countries to either kill the enemy or protect the people of the host nation.
—————————————————————————
Subscribe to The Cove Podcast to make sure that you do not miss our second and third episode in the Timor series on Sparrow Force in WWII centred on Kupang in West Timor and Dili in East Timor and on the 2/2 Independent Commando Company mounting a guerrilla campaign in the hills that surround Dili.
More from The Cove Podcast
In this episode of The Cove Podcast, CAPT Alex Jack shares his experience at the ADF School of Languages, from sitting the Language Aptitude Test and being selected for Mandarin through to the relentless pace of full-time language training. He discusses weekly assessments, learning thousands of new words and characters, developing speaking and translation skills, and the personal discipline required to keep up.
LTCOL Paul Middleton from Headquarters 2nd Division joins The Cove to discuss the integration of counter-uncrewed aerial systems during Exercise Austral Shield 2026. The exercise saw JTF 629 take newly issued LAND 156 equipment and trained operators into a collective tactical environment, moving beyond classroom training to test the equipment, tactics and soldiers against a realistic UAS threat. The conversation explores what was learned, how quickly soldiers adapted, and why counter-UAS is increasingly about fieldcraft, dispersion, detection and tactical decision-making—not simply defeating drones with technology.
Captain Andrew Dunn-Lobban from the Land Combat College’s Remote and Autonomous Systems Cell joins The Cove to explore how drones and robotic systems are changing land warfare. Drawing on lessons from Ukraine and Army’s own experimentation, we discuss the emerging Drone Combat System, new training pathways, how drone teams may operate across the force, and what soldiers and junior commanders need to understand about fighting in an increasingly RAS-enabled battlespace.
Lieutenant Oliver Douglas talks with John Hardgrave on The Cove Podcast to discuss his experience serving with the Oxford University Officers’ Training Corps while studying as a Rhodes Scholar. Drawing on his time inside both the Australian and British Army systems, he explores the cultural differences between the two forces and explains how the British UOTC model gives young people a rapid, low-commitment introduction to military service. The episode considers whether a similar approach could strengthen Army recruitment, officer development and public understanding of service in Australia
In this episode of The Cove Podcast, John Hardgrave talks with Dr Aaron Pegram and Major Craig Foreman from Unrecovered War Casualties – Army explain the painstaking work involved in locating, recovering and identifying Australia’s missing service personnel. They discuss the historical research, forensic science and investigative expertise behind each case, before taking listeners inside the recent search in Korea for Corporal William Murphy, who has remained missing since the Battle of Kapyong in 1951.