I Was Only Doing My Job Podcast

14/12/2025

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by today's tragic events in Bondi 🇦🇺

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03/12/2025

26,124 downloads
148 top ten fans on Spotify
14 top fans
342% growth in listeners
439% increase from last year.

Thank you all so much for your support.

Next year I promise will have more episode's

03/12/2025

Despite only putting out *checks notes* two episodes this year because of starting my Bachelor of Historical Inquiry and Practice degree. The podcast is still going strong.

This year also marked my first ever published article so while there may not be as many episodes there is plenty of content.

Thank you to the 14 people who are top listeners. And rest assured more content is on its way. I Was Only Doing My Job: An Australian Military History Podcast is not going away any time soon.

Thank you all again for the continued support.

26/11/2025

This is amazing.

24/11/2025

The Roll of Honour at the Australian War Memorial always stood as a testament to the sacrifice of Australian service personnel, more than 103,000 names cast in bronze, marking those who made the supreme sacrifice for their country of birth or choice.

For most of my life, it was an abstract symbol of service and loss. While I have discovered I have family on that Roll, Sergeant Glen Selby Harold Manuel, who died in the First World War, I never knew him, and in truth didn’t even know of him until I stumbled across his name recently. His is a story that feels like part of the wider history, rather than a memory I could touch.

But everything changed on Remembrance Day this year.

I knew Sergeant Ian Turner. Only briefly, we shared a single conversation before his passing. Seeing his name on the Roll has changed the way I look at those bronze panels forever.

Before, I could acknowledge the grief and loss behind every name. I could empathise with families who were left with nothing but a few letters etched in bronze to bridge the gap between memory and absence. But acknowledgement is not the same as experience.

Knowing someone whose name now rests on that Roll has made it personal. It has given me a new perspective on what remembrance truly means, and I will carry that with me from this day forward.

Lest we forget.

24/11/2025

16/11/2025

It has been requested, so here it is, show your support for the I Was Only Doing My Job Podcast with the launch of our official merch store. New items are being added all the time, and I've done the best I can to keep prices down as well.

order now for the holidays!!!

The official website and shop of I Was Only Doing My Job Podcast. Find the latest content, buy merch, and support your favorite creator.

10/11/2025

As dawn broke over Sydney, the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House were illuminated with a sea of red poppies, as the Last Post rang out across the harbour.

Today, we pause together in remembrance, honouring the courage, resilience, and sacrifice of those who have served, and those who gave their lives in defence of our nation.

10/11/2025

Today a hundred and eight years ago, the guns went silent, bringing to an end the deadliest conflict in history to that point. 17 million people were killed, most were civilians with scores more irreparably damaged by their experiences.

I have covered the stories of service and sacrifice of over seventy men and women, each touched by their service one way or another. Each one indelibly changed by their experiences. I myself have family who served, and continue to serve to this day.

Sergeant Glen Selby Harold Manuel is the only member of my family to have died in service. he survived Fromelles according to a newspaper report was 'the only one left out of his Section'. Wounded several times his war ended on April 15th 1918 when he died of shrapnel wounds in the back at Villers-Bretonneux.

Privates William Augustus and George Edward Pooley, my mothers ancestors where two of those men irrevocably damaged. William Augustus was wounded in 1917 and sent home, while George Edward suffered the psychological trauma of battle being sent home with Shell shock.

It is unclear how much the war affected them, but the injuries they sustained paint a clear picture of the hardships they and millions others endured. From the Pooley Brothers my families military legacy began, culminating with my brother in the Royal Australian Air Force and my Father in law and Sister in law in the Australian Army.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns, one hundred and eight years ago, fell silent.

The lifetime service of sacrifice would begin for almost every family in Australia.

We will remember them.

In Flanders Field's the poppies blow, Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.

02/11/2025

This is why the podcast exists

Who's someone we should never forget?

02/11/2025

Today RSL Victoria remembers Lieutenant Barbara Frances Black who died on this day in November 1971.

Born in Sydney on 19 March 1946 she grew up in Victoria, graduating from Traralgon High School before training to be a nurse.

She enlisted in the Royal Australian Nursing Corps in 1967 and was sent to the 1st Australian Field Hospital in Vung Tau where she would work 12-hour days six days a week as a minimum.

She was promoted to Sister in Charge of the Medical centre in 1969 and was temporarily appointed the rank of Captain.

She was in Vietnam for 16 months, returning home in September 1969 having been diagnosed with leukemia. She was not told of the diagnosis in Vietnam but merely advised to seek medical advice on return to Australia.

She was discharged in 1970 and shortly afterwards discovered she was pregnant. She also discovered the diagnosis of leukemia that had been withheld from her in Vietnam.

Lieutenant Black was told that benefits available to the children of male veterans who died were not the same as those available to her.

In her final months, while very sick and undergoing cancer treatment, she successfully lobbied for the Veterans Entitlement Act to be amended so that her child would receive the same benefits as the child of a deceased male veteran.

She passed away on 3 November 1971 aged 25 shortly after the birth of her daughter.

She is the only woman to be officially considered a casualty of the Vietnam War.

She is buried at Burwood Cemetery in Melbourne.

In the lead up to Remembrance Day, the Appeal Australia gives you a simple, meaningful way to honour a veteran - whether it’s Lieutenant Black or someone special to you.

Dedicate your poppy, share it with your community, and help support veterans and their families this Remembrance Day: www.poppyappeal.com.au

29/10/2025

I have acquired an A7V tank from the First World War and like the 26th Battalion I acquired it legitimately 😛.

This is the Sluban A7V and I've been wanting one for a while. Now that I have it i guess I need some Emus.

My next step will be finding more Mephisto appropriate Mephisto markings (or at least something to identify it as a specific A7V)

New episodes are on the way i assure you