RSL got Digger on road in civvy street
David Singer used to think the Returned and Services League was little more than a boozing club for veterans, an excuse for old men to drink beer and share war stories.
But after six months in Afghanistan, where he put his life in the hands of his mates and stared death in the face, he realised he had got it wrong.
Mr Singer joined the army in March 2008, soon after graduating from John XXIII College.
He impressed in training and earned a deployment to Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, arriving in mid-2009 before the presidential elections.
The 24-year-old is the son of academic parents in Wembley Downs, but in Afghanistan, he was a machinegunner.
His battle group had the task of securing Oruzgan province in the lead-up to the elections and helping with the construction of an Afghan army outpost in the Mirabad Valley.
Oruzgan province was far less liberated and secure than the capital Kabul and the Australians had their work cut out.
Mr Singer would regularly venture out as part of a small platoon in search of Taliban militia and weaponry, with an engineer or bomb detection dog scouting ahead.
The risk of stepping on a mine or tripping a wire was constant, but they channelled their anxiety into vigilance.
"We were clearing a compound one day and just as we were about to force open a door, someone spotted a wire," Mr Singer said.
"We couldn't open it safely so the engineers used a little bit of explosive to clear it and this thing levelled the entire building.
"I'd say a few people would have been hurt pretty badly and I would have been one of them."
Their training allowed them to shrug off situations that would have left many people in a state of shock.
"The Taliban can conceal bombs to such a degree that no one's going to see it, but if you're walking around thinking about that every second, you're going to go crazy," he said. "You just have to do the best you can."
Mr Singer left Afghanistan in February 2010 after the completion of the Mirabad outpost - a project he believed had lasting benefits for the oppressed locals.
He left the army two years later and joined the RSL in 2013. He is now the vice-president of the North Beach sub-branch.
The UWA psychology student, who volunteers for the Army Museum of WA and Red Cross, is one of the RSL's youngest and most passionate advocates.
"You get very close to the people in your platoon, people you trusted unconditionally, and it's somewhat different coming back to normal life," he said.
"I'm so lucky I came back with no physical or psychological problems, but that's not the case for everyone and I know that might not always be the case for me.
"To know you have that support network, and to be a part of that support network, that's probably the greatest thing about the RSL."
