Behind-the-scenes work honoured

Hours of behind-the-scenes pre-deployment administration are not immediately apparent to most soldiers who only see the final product.

Luckily for 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment’s Corporal Hayley Cornish, someone noticed her extra work getting Force Protection Element 9 away on their deployment, resulting in the awarding of a Conspicuous Service Medal in the Australia Day honours.

“It’s pretty crazy. It was a really nice gesture to receive that recognition, but I couldn’t have done all that work without the team I’d been working with over the past couple of years,” Corporal Cornish said.

“I guess our work doesn’t often get noticed, so when I got the letter notifying me about the medal, it really took me by surprise.

“It was a really nice gesture to receive that recognition.”

“The first thing I wanted to do was find out who put the nomination through so I could tell them it was way too much and thank them for their recognition.”

With her chief clerk deployed and the orderly room sergeant position vacant, it fell to Corporal Cornish to both make sure Force Protection Element 9 was ready to deploy and ensure the rest of the Battalion’s administration was looked after.

“There were a lot of extra hours put in, but everything ended up going pretty smoothly,” she said.

“Definitely a special mention needs to go to my hierarchy at Charlie Company, they were by my side the entire time and really helped out with all the extra hours both myself and the other clerks were putting in.

“We all stuck together and got the rotation through and I was fortunate enough to deploy on Force Protection Element 9.”