Trish Grace
There aren’t many Army wives who get to experience what their husbands go through when they’re deployed overseas and conversely not a lot of soldiers know what it’s like to keep the fires burning on the home front for months at a time while a spouse is serving on operations.
David and Trish Grace know what it is like to walk in each other’s shoes, having both served in Iraq over the past year as well as doing a stint alone with their two children on the home front.
David and Trish, both Corporals in the Australian Army, are now based in Darwin; David as a medic with the 5th Battalion The Royal Australian Regiment and Trish in the repair parts store at the 1st Combat Service Support Battalion, a workplace she describes as being “like an Army version of Repco”. Over the past two years, the couple has spent just four months together at home as a family with children Monique (14) and Dylan (10).
Trish is currently deployed as part of Security Detachment Baghdad (SECDET), the combat team which ensures the safety and mobility of Australian Government and Embassy staff in the Iraqi capital. Notice of her deployment came soon after David returned from a six month tour of duty with the Overwatch Battle Group. She was a late replacement for another soldier just weeks before the combat team left for Iraq. She runs SECDET’s spare parts shop out of a demountable hut and shipping container, a role that regularly sees her donning body armour and driving through Baghdad on re-supply missions.
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