For School and Country

Alex Lloyd introduces the World War II video documentary FOR SCHOOL AND COUNTRY, now on YouTube.

FOR SCHOOL AND COUNTRY is a five-part video documentary miniseries, created by us, Thistle Productions. The series chronicles the lives and service of twelve WWII veterans who went to school together and took up arms when war broke out. This production was originally released on DVD in 2015 - the first ‘Thistle Productions’ project - and it is finally available for free via streaming.

These dozen veterans served across the whole theatre of war. At sea they fought the Bismarck and the Admiral Graf Spee, and sailed in the Mediterranean Fleet and the Pacific Fleet, including at the largest naval engagement of the war. On land they fought at Tobruk, El Alamein and Tarakan; and they trekked through the jungles of New Guinea and landed on the beaches of Balikpapan. And in the sky they flew over Europe for Bomber Command, over the Middle East for the Desert Air Force, and with the Forgotten Army in Burma. Many had narrow escapes, including one sole survivor when his bomber crashed in enemy territory.

Watch the episodes via www.youtube.com/lifeonthelinepodcast now:

• Episode I - Books to Arms

• Episode II - Scuttled & Sunk

• Episode III - A Great Escape

• Episode IV - Terror in the Jungle

• Episode V - You Do Your Part

Find out more about the documentary here.

Life After Service: Gary & Renee Wilson

Gary Wilson was a signaller attached to the 2nd Commando Regiment. On the 21st of June, 2010, Gary and then-fiancé Renee’s lives were changed forever when Gary was severely injured in a Black Hawk helicopter crash.

In this episode of Life After Service, Thomas Kaye speaks to the now-married couple, Gary and Renee, about the accident, the challenges they overcame and how they are helping pave the way to support others, both veterans and the families of those veterans.

Want to join the Wilsons and support veterans, their families and give back? Check out The Wilson Initiative. https://thewilsoninitiative.com.au/ Looking to have more energy, manage pain and optimise your health? Gary runs Bare Coaching, his personal coaching service. Find out more at: https://www.barecoaching.com/

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

Life After Service: Tamara Sloper-Harding

Tamara Sloper-Harding served in the Royal Australian Navy as an intelligence officer and saw deployments to East Timor and Bougainville.

In this episode of Life After Service, Tarama catches up with an old navy colleague, Angus Hordern, and reflects on her life post service, including a little village called Soibada that captured her heart.

If you want to find out more about the charity and support the efforts of Tamara and co, you can find out more on Facebook, or you can reach out to them at: pittwaterfriendsofsoibada@gmail.com

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

Life After Service: Tony Park

Tony Park is a fiction and non-fiction international bestselling author. Before that, he served in the Australian Army Reserves in various roles, including as a public affairs officer.

In 2002, he was deployed to Afghanistan alongside the SAS, with his first novel published in 2004.

In this episode of Life After Service, Alex Lloyd spoke with Tony about what the army did for him, the challenges of readjusting to normal life after deploying, the military's relationship with the public, and his writing career journey.

To find out more about Tony and keep up to date with his work, be sure to look at his website. https://www.tonypark.net/

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

Life After Service: Don Barnby

Former SAS trooper and Australian Federal Police officer Don Barnby is the third veteran featured in our Life After Service series.

Don served in the Vietnam war as a special forces soldier, and at Cyprus, Bougainville and East Timor with the AFP.

On a volunteer basis, Don has also been interviewing veterans for the Australian War Memorial.

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

** If you are struggling with any of the topics raised in this video, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14, Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or Open Arms on 1800 011 046.

Life After Service: Glenn Kolomeitz

Former aircraft technician, military policeman and legal officer, Glenn Kolomeitz is the next veteran in the Life After Service series.

In our podcast interview with Glenn (#22), we covered his early life, military career, and ongoing work in the veteran community. Glenn returned to the podcast in the special episodes Panel - Returning Home and Christmas on the Line. He was also featured in #44 Mick Bainbridge.

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

Life After Service: Sarah Watson

An intelligence officer to Iron Man athlete to veterans advocate. Sarah Watson is the first veteran we feature in our series Life After Service.

In our podcast interview with her (#76), we discussed her time in the Australian Defence Force. In this documentary, we cover her challenges and successes in her time adapting to life after the military.

Watch the episode on YouTube above, or listen to the audio-only version below.

Trailer - Life After Service - A Life on the Line Special

From World War II to modern-day conflicts and everything in-between, LIFE ON THE LINE has been bringing you the stories from veterans far and wide that have done their part for their friends, family and nation.

Covering their reasons to join, who they are behind the uniform and focus on their time in service.

LIFE AFTER SERVICE is a special series where we focus on their lives after the military and how they adapted to civilian life. Catch our first episode as we release it on the 23rd of March.

Watch the video trailer above or listen to the audio-only version below.

Season 5 Trailer

Welcome to Season 5 of LIFE ON THE LINE, Australia's first and leading veterans podcast, from Thistle Productions.

Season 5 of LIFE ON THE LINE begins next week! Subscribe to get all content. Continue to listen to breathtaking Australian stories as you've never heard them before. This year we will also do a handful of video podcasts, released exclusively to our YouTube channel. This is in addition to our upcoming video documentary series LIFE AFTER SERVICE.

Our first podcast - video and audio - is out next week with 2nd Commando Regiment veteran Heston Russell. Subscribe in your favourite podcast app and on YouTube to never miss an episode.

The video version of our trailer is at the top of this post. You can also listen to the audio version, released through our podcast channel, below.

Introducing LIFE AFTER SERVICE

LIFE AFTER SERVICE is a documentary miniseries, brought to you by the team behind LIFE ON THE LINE. The show, created and directed by Thomas Kaye, will release a new episode every month on YouTube, starting March 2021.

Voodoo Medics with Mark Donaldson VC, Dr Dan Pronk and Kristin Shorten

Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. This bonus episode covers the upcoming 8-part documentary VOODOO MEDICS, a short series of webisodes published by The Daily Telegraph Online starting 22 October 2018. Alex Lloyd speaks with the documentary's creator and host, journalist Kristin Shorten, as well as two of its interviewees, Australian veterans Mark Donaldson VC and Dr Dan Pronk. VOODOO MEDICS looks at the lives post-army of medics who served with Special Forces, and interviews such former medics, the operators they fought alongside, and more, in an insightful expose on the cost of modern war.

To watch the documentary, click here!

If you enjoyed these conversations with Mark and Dan, you can catch their original interviews in Season 2:

• #31 Dr Dan Pronk Vol I

• #31 Dr Dan Pronk Vol II

• #36 Mark Donaldson VC

And for more conversations with Dr Dan Pronk:

• Lessons of a Combat Doctor with Dr Dan Pronk

• #107 Brett Wood

• SAS Resilience with Dr Dan Pronk, Ben Pronk and Tim Curtis

For School and Country with Thistle Productions

Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. Every week we also have a bonus episode, where we speak to historians, authors and others in the veterans community. Today's bonus episode is with the makers of this podcast, Thistle Productions. The original crew of Angus Hordern, Alex Lloyd, Thomas Kaye and Rohan Viswalingam reflect on their first veterans project, the documentary miniseries FOR SCHOOL AND COUNTRY, and how the team became so invested in telling veterans' stories.

Archive Interview - John Reid

Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. Most weeks we also have a bonus episode, where we speak to historians, authors and others in the veterans community. Today's bonus episode is from our archive vault, an interview with World War II veteran John Reid.

Archive Interview - Arthur Pardey

Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. Most weeks we also have a bonus episode, where we speak to historians, authors and others in the veterans community. Today's bonus episode is from our archive vault, an interview with World War II veteran Arthur Pardey.

Archive Interview - John Hore-Lacy

Life on the Line tracks down Australian war veterans and records their stories. Most weeks we also have a bonus episode, where we speak to historians, authors and others in the veterans community. Today's bonus episode is from our archive vault, an interview with World War II veteran John Hore-Lacy. This archive interview was taken from the documentary miniseries FOR SCHOOL AND COUNTRY.