James Andrew McGregor

Birthdate: 22 May 1963

Student of CHS between 1976 - 1979

Enlisted in Australian Regular Army 1981, still serving

Current Rank: Warrant Officer Class One

Operational Service: East Timor (1999/2000), Baghdad Iraq (2003/2004)

Honours and Awards: Australian Active Service Medal with East Timor Clasp; Australian Active Service Medal with Iraq 2003 Clasp; INTERFET Campaign Medal; Iraq Campaign Medal; Defence Long Service Medal; First Clasp to Defence Long Service Medal; Austalian Defence Medal.

 

My early years were spent playing with plastic soldiers and tanks. And playing army with my friends, setting ambushes on each other etc. I guess I was always destined to join!

Well, what can I say about my time at CHS! I was in a very clicky group of guys (Graeme Law, Tim Kortschak, Adrian Caulkett) and we were quite nerdy although I was always in trouble for fighting! We were practical jokers and used to set up practical jokes all over the school although the science room was the favourite place to set traps up! Lunchtimes were spent playing volleyball or smoking down the back of the oval! My maths teacher was Miss Bluett who I now believe is involved in the VTU in some capacity. The only form teacher's name I remember is Mr Demunk.

I left CHS at the end of year 10 due to a broken leg (from playing aussie rules) and held tempory work at Box Hill Butchers before joining the Australian Regular Army in 1981.

Since this time, I have served as a full time member and have achieved the rank of Warrant Officer Class One, which is the highest rank obtainable for enlisted soldiers.

I have seen operational action in East Timor in 1999/2000 and Iraq in 2003/2004.

I do love the mateship and the teamwork aspect of the profession and of course the job security. The mandatory retirement age is 55 however, I have already served enough time to obtain a full pension so I guess I must love it to be remaining in.

My career pathway has mainly been logistic management however on operations I was required to be involved in numerous Close Personal Protection (CPP) tasks or bodyguard tasks in other words. The principals I looked after included the then Chief of the Defence Force, General Peter Cosgrove.

Places visited during these tasks included Kurdistan (which is a separate state within Iraq). That's about all I can really say about that for security reasons!

This photo was taken when James was a Warrant Officer Class Two

 

That's James (above) in Form 2C 1976, sitting on the right of the teacher - bottom row.