Australian special forces troops on patrol in Afghanistan (file pic supplied by Australian Army)
ON the 16th of March this year, Mathew Hopkins became the 9th Australian soldier killed in action in Afghanistan – a country in which our troops have been operational in the eight years since the mass murder attacks of 9/11.
In the four months since Corporal Hopkins was killed, another two brave young Australian men have died.
Later today in Canberra, the Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Lieutenant General David Hurley, will announce the findings of an inquiry in to Cpl Hopkins’s death in the Oruzgan Province. This fits with the Army’s new policy of transparency and disclosure. And that’s a good thing.
Yet there is much we already know about Corporal Hopkins, who was serving with the Australian Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force. And it is really good stuff. Stuff about character and heart. Stuff that shouldn’t be lost in the jargon-rich environment of the release today of an “inquiry officer’s report” that is sure to be, as they always are, mired in Orwellian speak designed to camouflage and confuse.
Stuff like the starting point: that Mathew Hopkins joined the Army in 2005 – as soon as he could, effectively; that he was first deployed to Afghanistan in 2006; and that he was involved in the training of his allied soldiers in the Afghan National Army.
There’s more: he was a happy bloke who loved a joke and was known as Hoppy by his mates; he was a leader who led from the front and a good mate who cared for his fellow soldiers; and he was born in New Zealand, came to Australia and was just 21 when he died.
Trooper Hopkins was a proud husband to Victoria and prouder father to newborn son Alexander. He was killed in the Baluchi Valley when Taliban terrorists attacked his unit while on patrol.
At his funeral on March 27 this year, Mat’s mother gave an eloquent eulogy in which she spoke about the qualities – well, some of them – that defined her son.
Worth noting is what she had to say about her child’s career choice: “Mat only ever wanted to join the Army, and when everyone else in year 12 was studying or out partying you would find Mathew reading every book you could read on Army life, or out training so he could be the best possible soldier.”
Who knows what tomorrow will bring from the brass at Army HQ.
Let’s hope it brings some measure of peace to the family of Corporal Mathew Hopkins, a respected and dearly missed member of the 7th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment.
And let’s hope, beyond hope, that our government ensures his wife, his son, and his family are properly cared for. For life. It’s the least we can do.
Lest we forget.
