Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

HONOURS AND AWARDS- Original documents sighted by Chief Moderator
Approval Dt Code
Award Title
20/08/2019 MUC30
Meritorious Unit Citation Rwanda
05/04/2018 DLSM*
First Clasp to the Defence Long Service Medal
27/05/2015 AOSMGMEOPS
Australian Operational Service Medal - Greater Middle East Operation
17/02/2014 AASMICAT*
Clasp ICAT to the Australian Active Service Medal
17/02/2014 AFGCAMMED
Afghanistan Medal
08/09/2010 DLSM
Defence Long Service Medal
31/01/2007 ADM
Australian Defence Medal
16/11/2006 AASMRWANDA*
Clasp RWANDA to the Australian Active Service Medal
29/08/2002 AASMET
Australian Active Service Medal with Clasp EAST TIMOR
26/07/2002 RAS
Returned From Active Service Badge
02/12/1994 UNAMIR
United Nations Medal with Ribbon UNAMI

Sean grew up in North Ringwood, Victoria and studied at Victoria University completing a Bachelor of Applied Science in Physical Education in 1991.

Sport was a huge factor in Sean’s early life playing cricket and football at a high level. He was recruited to Essendon as a 15 year old and played U19 and Reserves over a four year period which included playing in the U19 grand final on the MCG grand final day in 1988.

Sean worked in the civilian health and fitness industry for many years from gym instructor to personal trainer to Exercise Physiologist.

Sean decided he would like a change of scenery in 1992 and applied to and was accepted into the Royal Military College, Duntroon to become an Army Officer. Sean graduated in December 1993 into the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps.

Sean’s career in the RAAMC spanned 25 years and covered all the standard roles and appointments for a General Service Officer including six operational tours to: Rwanda (1994), East Timor (2001), Niue (2004), PNG and Nauru (2012), Afghanistan (2013), and Iraq (2015).

Iraq was by far Sean’s most challenging role as the inaugural commander of the coalition hospital in Taji supporting the Iraqi Army training mission in their fight against Islamic State. This involved planning, training, deploying and establishing the hospital in a brown field site in extremely arduous conditions.

Other significant roles included being the Operations Officer of three separate health units responsible for the readiness and training of those units to be prepared to deploy on operations at short notice to anywhere in the world.

Sean was also lucky enough to have attended the ADF School of Languages and studied Indonesian and Tetum. This allowed him to travel to Indonesia on several occasions for further study and deploy to East Timor with the UN as the Military Assistant to Commander Sector West where his primary responsibility was lo liaise with the Indonesian Military and translate at regular fortnightly conferences.  

Whilst in the Army, Sean continued to play football and represented the Army on several occasions and was selected in the ADF combined team that toured New Zealand in 1996.

As well as his regular work in the Army, Sean completed several courses that trained him as an Adventurous Training Leader and Survival Instructor.

Sean has a passion for scuba diving and travel. He has backpacked around the world twice, visited over 100 countries and is a PADI Dive Master with over 1000 dives.

Sean met his wife Rachael while diving in Honduras and now lives in Fitzroy, Melbourne and has a Moodle named Happy.