1. AFGHANISTAN
REVEILLE 18
their family and friends back home, that really
help get the Australians through. “The biggest
help usually was sitting and talking amongst
yourselves as a group,” he says reflecting on the
support network he had in his comrades. “If
something did happen, like the deaths, you’d
just look after each other.”
Brickacek proposed to his wife Emma before
he deployed to Afghanistan, and he says that
speaking with her would be one of the greatest
comforts when he was feeling worn down:
“Just speaking to home, to Emma, was for me
the relief.”
Interestingly, while he agrees that his role in
Afghanistan was incredibly dangerous, he says
he remained extremely calm while rendering
safe each IED. “For me, everything’s really clear.
It’s peaceful. There’s no one around,” he says
thinking back to the numerous times he was
involved with these potentially deadly weapons.
“There’s a bomb. All it wants to do is set
LIEUTENANT BRICKACEK grew up in
Randwick, Sydney, and obtained degrees
in mathematics and physics from the
University of Sydney.
He joined the Navy in 2004 as a Seaman
Officer, before completing his Bridge
Watchkeeping Certificate in HMAS
Warramunga while deployed to the
Middle East in 2006. A year later he joined
Australian Clearance Diving Team Four.
This was Richard Brickacek’s second
deployment to the Middle East but,
unlike the first, there was no water in
sight and the conditions were much
tougher.
“The toughest situation I have been
involved with was on a patrol when we
lost two of our mates in an IED blast,”
Richard said.
“I was only four metres away from
where it exploded, so I consider myself
pretty lucky to still be alive.”
There were more explosions on the
day he married his fiancée Emma last
December. Their wedding reception at
the Opera House was punctuated by a
spectacular fireworks display organised
for Oprah Winfrey!
Cpl Richard Jauncy
(engineer) and Lt
Brickacek (EOD).