CHAP Steve Cloudsdale
Hoping to make Townsville home
HIS father and grandfather were ADF chaplains , so it seemed only a matter of time before CHAP Steve Cloudsdale followed suit ... but he took plenty of time to make the leap . And when he did begin the sign up process to join Army as a chaplain , it was on a day that everybody remembers , albeit for unhappy reasons - September 11 , 2001 . His father Tom was a Navy chaplain and grandfather James , an Army chaplain . It wasn ’ t a big step for Steve to take the third generation into the ADF chaplaincy - he had been a chaplain of one sort of another for more than 25 years before joining the Army Reserves . Now , on the cusp of what otherwise would be his retirement , he hopes to take another step into the world of cadets as a part-time chaplain for the Australian Army Cadets in North Queensland . “ It all depends on whether they ’ re prepared to extend my Compulsory Retirement Age or not ,” Steve said . He has an influential “ sponsor ” in that endeavour - DCOMD NQ AAC LTCOL Jan Cooper - who is keen to secure his services for the position . It ’ s a big commitment for Steve and wife Ann to move from Hobart to Townsville for a 12-month posting , but they ’ re prepared to set up a permanent base here ... at least as permanent as their four children and 15 grandchildren living in the south will allow .
For the cadets , it ’ s a bit like waiting for overdue trains to arrive ... having been without chaplaincy support for so long , they ’ re suddenly going to be blessed with the arrival of two chaplains in Steve and former Navy Reserves chaplain for 37 years CHAP ( AAC ) Laurie Timms , based in Cairns . Steve is very excited about the role and he spent hours slogging about the barracks and the Mt Stuart Training Area with the cadets during their Annual Field Exercise last month . He brings a wealth of experience - not least being his 2010 deployment to the Middle East during which he visited the members of FSU-4 in Tarin Kowt and Kandahar , Afghanistan . It was a harrowing tour based at the egress to the MEAO - Al Minhad Air Base . He conducted seven ramp ceremonies , and each time felt the pain and grief everybody in Army felt having to send home the remains of one of their own . He travelled to Tarin Kowt to conduct the ramp ceremony for LCPL Andrew Jones , who was shot and killed by a rogue member of the Afghan National Army on sentry duty at the Foward Operating Base in which LCPL Jones was an Army cook . Steve said he had kept in touch with the Jones family and visited them regularly in Melbourne . He was also a chaplain with the Pilbara Regiment
44 | OCTOBER 2017