No Longer A Soldier

BOOK REVIEW
DR PATRICK MULLINS - ANU CANBERRA
VETAFFAIRS NEWSPAPER - DECEMBER 2024 EDITION

Donna’s first book Hidden Courage focused of her lengthy Army career and ended with her 2016 medical discharge. She wrote with enthusiasm about the highs of army life: the camaraderie, the purpose, the delight in learning and the places she went. Running throughout however was a more sober re-evaluation of the requirements of that career. Most prominent was the considerable systematic and individual sexism that she navigated and contended with. But following close behind was the institutional obligation that Bourke and her peers compartmentalise any aspects of their life that could affect their work as soldiers – mental health issues most of all.

The first of this sequel memoir – No longer a Soldier - traces the effects of the compartmentalising after her discharge.
Who am I, she asks, if not a soldier? Without the pass-fail standard of military life, without the clear paths and hierarchies, without the urgency of orders and all-encompassing missions, Bourke grapples for some purchase. Her memoir offers an account of the dead ends, repetitive fields, and rocky stretches that she treads through while trying to blaze her own path. No Longer a Soldier is not always a fluent read, and some diversions are unnecessary padding, But, in its messy trajectory, Bourkes memoir dramatises the search for an answer to who and what she is now, outside of the military.
That she has repeated the problem of compartmentalising comes to Bourke only at the end when she unpacks a box of mementoes – awards, photos, reports – and realises that the conclusion of her Army career does not define the whole of that career, nor define her now.
The second half consists of accounts by five other soldiers and one aviator. While preserving an individual and subjective character, the striking similarities of the five accounts lend Bourke’s final realisation about herself a retrospective greater weight. The journeys of Bourke and her five fellow veterans are not over, but in their clear-eyed apprehension of who they are now, in the military and outside of it, there is something important: a sense that their futures are theirs to make.

BOOK REVIEW OF NO LONGER A SOLDIER
BY KIRRILY MCILRAILD – THE TANGENT NEWSLETTER
(Australian Veterans Arts Museum) ANVAM 23 DEC 23

Reading Donna Bourke’s second memoir, No Longer
a Soldier, is like riding shotgun as Bourke steers us
through a previously concealed landscape. We begin
in Part I, where Bourke identifies her challenge: life
after discharging from a thirty-four-year career in
the Army will require a journey of ‘un-becoming’ if
she is to successfully answer the question: ‘who am I
if I’m no longer a soldier?’ Each chapter then offers a
snapshot of her transitional journey into the civilian
world where, unlike in the military, emotion is rife
and failure is an option. Bourke’s voice is compelling
as she models how to apply the strengths gained
throughout her career, such as self-motivation and
resilience, to developing emotional stability. We learn
about her unforeseen triggers for trauma, but also
the myriad of people and organisations (including
ANVAM) that deliver Bourke into a new identity in
the creative arts. The memoir then crosses to Part
II, where Bourke generously uses her platform to
provide a voice for five other soldiers and veterans:
Cherie, Sarah, Laura, Rob and Moz, whose struggles
and joys correlate with those of Bourke.

Being a soldier offers a unique lifestyle that demands
the masking of pain, hypervigilance and a high level
of performance. The consequences of these pressures
can be dire. But as much as the challenges align for
these six people, so too do the pathways forward.
Strong support networks, a clear sense of purpose, as
well as engagement with the arts and animals, are all
common avenues for finding identity beyond being
in uniform. Not to mention the ongoing camaraderie
that comes from military colleagues – past and
present.

At the end of No Longer a Soldier it is clear that the
journeys of these soldiers and veterans are, for now,
unfinished. Some are still on the road to a place
where hope, rather than trauma, defines identity.
Nonetheless, as readers we are privileged to be in
such great company (to borrow Bourke’s words) as
we bear witness to these stories that are a crucial
inclusion in Australia’s current military narrative.

(Provided with permission from one of the authors in No Longer a Soldier's relatives).
"There were a few mixed emotions - rage at how my Uncle was treated before his medical discharge, guilt on my behalf for not reaching out more often, and happiness that my Uncle has written a beautifully articulate account of his service. I feel I was naive to the suffering of our veterans. I assumed their not wanting to talk about it comes from a place of privacy and wanting to keep it that way. Reading my Uncle's story and the others has been an eye-opener for me. I wish I had reached out or just told him that he was loved more often. All of the stories in No Longer a Soldier are well written, the first thing I noticed as an avid reader, but how beautiful for your kids to have that."

I read Donna's first book and of course, couldn't wait to read her sequel. I found the second book as easy to read as the first. At times it brought tears to my eyes tempered with the opportunity to laugh at the behind the lines knowledge of the instances in it. Reading the different perspectives of military life by the other five authors Donna invited to share their stories, was a real eye opener for me. I have been out of the military for 29 years, but both my wife and I could relate to the strength of these brave individuals very much. Thank you for sharing your stories.

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