Erin Teague-Suradi
Pitjantjatjara/ Yankunytjatjara
Warrant Officer Class Two
Royal Australian Artillery
Australian Army
Medals
Australian Active Service Medal with clasp ICAT
Afghanistan Medal
Australian Service Medal with clasp Timor-Leste
Australian Operational Service Medal – Border Protection
Defence Long Service Medal with 1st clasp
Australian Defence Medal
Medalha Solidariedade de Timor-Leste (Timor-Leste Solidarity Medal)
NATO Non-Article 5 Medal with clasp ISAF
Operational Service Badge – Military
Returned From Active Service Badge
I am a proud Aṉangu man who grew up in Darwin. I initially enlisted into the Army to make a change for my family and myself. I did this to break the cycle of life I was currently living, but no longer wanted. I joined so I could remove myself from that environment and knew that doing so would take me out of Darwin and away from it all; looking back now, it was the best decision I have ever made, and I wouldn’t change a thing. Funnily enough, my very first posting was back in Darwin.
I enlisted into the Australian Regular Army in 2001. After completing my recruit training at Kapooka, I attended the School of Artillery (Puckapunyal), where I completed my initial employment training as a Gun Number in the Royal Australian Artillery. My postings include 8th/12th Regiment, Joint Proof Experimental Unit (Port Wakefield), 4th Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, Defence Force Recruiting, School of Artillery, 1st Recruit Training Battalion and the Army School of Transport (Maritime Wing) where I am currently employed as the Standards Warrant Officer.
My more enjoyable postings, and ones that I have been really passionate about, were Defence Force Recruiting, where I was employed as a specialist recruiter specifically to recruit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women to increase our numbers within Defence. More recently, when posted to the 1st Recruit Training Battalion, I was employed as the Company Sergeant Major for the Recruit Development Company. This role saw me training and mentoring those Indigenous recruits; this enabled them to become the next generation of modern warriors with traditional values, defending Country.
I have been fortunate enough to deploy on operations as part of the transit security element for border protection within Operation RELEX in 2002 and on Operation ASTUTE in 2009 as part of TLBG-VI (Timor-Leste Battle Group) where I was embedded within Alpha Company 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (2 RAR). In 2011, I was deployed on Operation SLIPPER as part of the Artillery Training Team Kabul where we mentored the Afghan National Army in Fire Direction.