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BIOGRAPHY – 455229 Warrant Officer Class Two Peter Higgs

Peter Higgs grew up in the Riverland region of South Australia during the 70's and 80's.
Pete's father was very rarely home due to his work as an interstate truck driver, as such Peter and his older brother was raised by their mum, Margaret. When his parents separated, Peter was only 8 years old. This proved to be a pivotal point in his life, as he had to grow up quickly to make life easier for his mum. Margaret worked hard, often two or more jobs at a time, to ensure that her two sons were kept fed and with a roof over their heads. It was this work ethic that Peter carried with him through his school days and into his military career.
Peter continued his schooling after moving from Berri to Renmark, with dreams of being a fighter pilot in the RAAF one day.

After not being able to achieve the grades needed to realise his dream (and with some peer group pressure from two of his school mates who were already in the regular Army), he left school and enlisted into the regular Army on the 5th of July 1988. After completing recruit training and then initial employment training at the School of Infantry, Peter was allocated to the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) as an ECN-343 Rifleman. Peter's first posting was to Delta Company, 6RAR at Enoggera Barracks in Brisbane in March 1989.

During his posting at 6RAR, Peter served as a section machine gunner in Delta Coy, carrying the beloved MAG58 7.62mm GPMG, and then as a Mortarman in Mortar Platoon in Support Coy. The technical aspect of the use of Mortar weapons was very satisfying, and would have a greater impact on his career than he knew.
Even though life as a "grunt" was rewarding, Peter was keen to get more from his Army career than just soldiering skills. He knew that once leaving the safety of ADF job security, he would need to be able to support himself, and, possibly one day, a young family.
This led to him looking at other jobs within the Army that interested him.
As luck would have it, a previous school friend from Berri, Peter Hoffman, was posted to the 6RAR Technical Support Platoon as a Crafstman in the Corps of the Royal Aust Electrical Mechanical Engineers (RAEME). Peter Hoffman was a fitter/armourer, and knew that Peter was always keen to be a diesel mechanic, as he grew up around trucks and earthmoving equipment as a child. Peter found out about the Army Adult Trade Scheme, and, after successfully passing the testing process, was posted to the Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Latchford Barracks in Albury/Wodonga.
In December 1993, Peter then got married and they moved to Wodonga so that he could start his trade training.

In January 1994, Peter started the Army Adult Trade Course as a trainee Vehicle Mechanic at Latchford Barracks. Whilst completing training at Latchford, Peter's first son, James, was born in July, 1995.
Upon completion of his trade training in 1996, Peter was transferred to the corps of RAEME. The first posting in his RAEME career as a Craftsman Vehicle Mechanic was at 1st Signals REGT Workshop Company.

During his posting at the Signals workshop, Peter's second son, Lachlan, was born in March 1998.
It was during this posting that Peter was also promoted to CPL and completed his first overseas deployment. This consisted of a 4-month tour on OP BEL ISI II in Bougainville, PNG, during the period Jun-Oct 1999. This tour was an amazing experience for him, as the team sites were located in remote locations around the island. This made the task of providing mechanical support to the team sites quite difficult and challenging. Peter would often require the assistance of Iriquois UH-1H helicopters to get to vehicles that suffered a mechanical failure whilst on patrol to the different villages.
The island itself is full of relics from the battles Australian troops had fought with the Japanese during WW2, which made for interesting days out when visiting local villages.
After returning from Bougainville, Peter was posted to Lavarack Barracks in Townsville to 1RAR Technical Support Platoon as the Vehicle Section CPL.

Not long after marching into 1RAR, Peter was redeployed to Bougainville for another 4 months with OP BEL ISI II, much to the disgust of his young family. With no family support in Townsville, it made looking after two young kids under five difficult.
Peter returned from Bougainville in July 2000 in time to prepare to deploy with his platoon as part of the 1RAR Battalion Group to East Timor in October. Upon return from East Timor in April 2001, he completed all of his promotion courses required to reach the rank of SGT.
In mid-2002, Peter was offered the position as the Vehicle SGT in Technical Support Troop at the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) in Perth, WA. Peter did not hesitate in accepting this, as the experience of being part of this unit was too good an opportunity to pass up. So, after the birth of his daughter Tahlia in September 2002, Peter packed up his family once again and they made the move to Swanbourne in Western Australia. This was a big trip for their young family, especially with a young infant on board. Unfortunately, this included a forced detour for work reasons to Sydney, so the trip took longer than planned.

Life at the SASR was always interesting and a great challenge, both physically and mentally. With the unit having such a high operational tempo it was never dull, with the workshop providing front line support to a number of operational tasks at any one time.
The highlight of this posting for him was two deployments to the Middle East Area of Operations (MEAO). The first was as part of OP Slipper OP Falconer to provide close support to Australian Special Forces troops operating in the MEAO over the period Jan-July 2003. Peter’s second deployment was as part of the Special Operations Task Group (SOTG1) in Oruzgan province, Afghanistan.
Life for his family was hard whilst he was away. Coming home to a daughter who did not recognise her father was difficult to take, however, this was not a new experience for him.
Upon return to Australia in January 2006, it was time again for Peter to move his family, this time on posting to the Army School of Electrical Mechanical Engineering in Wodonga, Victoria. 

Peter was posted to the Army School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (ASEME) into the Vehicle Technology Wing. This was a training posting where he was required to be a trade and military instructor to new trainees completing their trade training. Peter found this both rewarding and tiring, as it required very early starts followed by long days instructing trade skills. Even though this was a demanding posting, the pleasure gained from seeing new soldiers evolve into soldier tradesmen and tradeswomen was extremely satisfying.

The posting to ASEME was only two years, and after completion of his Warrant Officer promotion courses, Peter was posted on promotion to Warrant Officer Class Two to the Defence Materiel Organisation (DMO) in January 2008.
Peter was allocated to Project REDFIN, where his experience within SASR as the SGT Vehicle Mechanic was used to provide technical advice on the new Special Operations Vehicle. The Supacat High Mobility Transporter (HMT) was later designated as the “Nary” (named after WO2 Dave Nary of SASR, who was tragically killed whilst on operational service). These 6x6 and 4x4 HMT variants were been manufactured and then introduced into service in the Army. These were seen as a direct replacement for the aging LRPV fleet that had seen a tremendous amount of service both in training and on operations. This posting involved developing the maintenance training and the initial introduction into service logistical support packages.

Upon completion of this posting in December 2009, Peter returned to Western Australia, where he filled the role of the Workshop Training WO/EMEWO/ASM for 12 months at 13CSSB, an army reserve unit. This was a difficult posting, as Peter quickly identified the amount of time and resources being wasted on the ARES scheme for very little tangible return. It was easy to see how the ARA staff posted into these units suffered depression and burnout from having to deal with the ARES system.

Peter returned to SASR in January 2011. During this tenure back at SASR, Peter filled the role of Artificer Sergeant Major (ASM) as well as EMEWO. Peter re-deployed to Afghanistan again in late February of 2011, again in support of the SOTG elements. This proved to be a unique experience, as he was exposed to an element outside of the usual maintenance environment.
Due to a serious injury that was a result of the deployment back to Afghanistan, Peter was laid up for a few weeks. This injury led to the downgrading of his medical status. Peter completed his two-year tenure at SASR before being medically downgraded and posted back to the DMO in Melbourne in 2013. 
This also saw the family unit being reduced by one. Peter’s oldest son James, now 17 and having gained an apprenticeship as a chef, chose to stay in Perth and pursue his career.

From the period of January 2013 until his medical discharge in July 2017, Peter fulfilled the role of the Senior Technical Advisor for Special Forces Minor Projects. This involved providing technical and logistic advice on the niche specialist fleets within the Special Forces community to the Engineering and Sustainment staff within the Combat and General Service Vehicle Systems Program Office. Being exposed to the defence acquisition process for new military equipment was an enjoyable but at times, stressful and difficult area to work in.

The mounting stresses placed on his family over the years due to the nature of being a soldier and ADF service life, Peter’s marriage broke down in early 2015. This saw Peter living back in a barracks room in the SGT’s Mess for a short period, before gaining access to a Married Quarter. This enabled him to have shared custody with his two remaining children.

On the 25th of July, 2017, exactly 29 years and 20 days after enlisting, Peter discharged from the Regular Army, before moving back to the Riverland.
Peter now spends time volunteering with the local Army Cadet unit, and is an active member of the local RSL sub branch.

The highlights of Peter's 29-year Army career have been many and varied. The deployments to East Timor, the MEAO and PNG have confirmed with him that Australians truly do live in the lucky country. The fondest memories of his service are of all the mates he has made along the way and the professional soldiers he has had the opportunity to work with.

Even though the rigors of service life are not for everyone, watching his children grow and deal with these rigors along the way has been a great source of pride for him.