Serving in East Timor was a positive experience for most of the 1200 Australian Defence Force personnel surveyed by University of Queensland researchers.
But some personnel also criticise their Commanders in the survey, most commonly blaming “poor military leadership” for their negative experiences while deployed in the fledgling nation to Australia’s north.
School of Public Health PhD candidate Ms Catherine Runge said 80 per cent of troops described their deployment experience as positive, 13 per cent rated it as neutral and seven per cent as negative.
“ADF personnel cited intrinsic rewards as the most positive deployment experiences, which included using their skills to help the East Timorese people,” Ms Runge said.