This short podcast series features members from the 7th Battalion Royal Australian Regiment who highlight lessons learned during the Battalion's 'ready' year and their deployment in the Middle East region. In this first episode we meet Lieutenant John Pandoulis, who deployed to Afghanistan from June 2016 to February 2017 as a Force Protection Platoon Commander as part of Operation HIGHROAD.

About the producer: Sharon Mascall-Dare is an Army Reserve Public Affairs Officer posted to Headquarters 9th Brigade in South Australia. In her civilian life she is an award-winning British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio broadcaster and Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Communication at the University of South Australia.