Life on the Line

Life on the Line is a conversation podcast built around Australian war veterans, and Alex Lloyd conducts the interviews. The first thing to notice is how far apart its eras sit. #154 Frederick and Marjorie Logan is set in jungle fighting against Japanese troops, and a speaker describes clearing jungle at Slater's Knoll, stringing barbed wire and digging foxholes. The phone line went dead that evening. The attack came at daylight, in waves, with officers out front waving swords. An early blast buried the speaker and a mate in their own foxhole. Other episodes move to special forces operations against the Taliban. The Battle of Shah Wali Kot is told from the ground: one soldier remembers a full day under heavy machine-gun and RPG fire, a rocket that failed to explode a few metres away, and an afternoon spotting with a sniper named Ben Chuck, who was later killed in action in a helicopter crash. The same battle comes up again in The Last Battle with Aaron Patrick, this time through a journalist's book. There Alex Lloyd names the mistrust in the veteran community and asks who was interviewed from the 2nd Commando Regiment and how the stories were kept honest. Patrick concedes that the special forces world is wary of journalists, and with fair reason. Books are another way in. #153 Scott Ryder features a 2nd Commando Regiment veteran with 22 years of Army service, time in East Timor, multiple tours of Afghanistan and Iraq, and a new book, Forged in Fire. The guests do not all agree. A voice at the top of that episode insists he knows no operator with PTSD from killing the enemy, while the recurring introduction carries another voice calling war a horror story that should never be dressed up as glorious. #68 Harry Moffitt Vol III turns reflective. A speaker argues that accountability is not the same as a rigorous ethical re-examination and calls terms like collateral damage 'pretty words for ugly things'. Memorial episodes form a strand of their own. #155 Tim Aplin remembers a man described as the quintessential Anzac, a drill sergeant at RMC whose compassion and sheer hilarity young officers still mention. The tribute also makes room for his frill-neck lizard impression in a Bali nightclub. It points back to earlier memorial work: an interview with Doug Baird, father of the late Cameron Baird, VC MG, in season two, and a season five tribute to the late Brett Wood, MG DSM. The register is plain-spoken and sober, with room for humour at the edges. Episodes are produced by Thistle Productions and sign off with 'lest we forget'. For a first listen, try the two Shah Wali Kot episodes back to back: one battle, heard from a soldier who was there and from the journalist whose book covers it.