SITREP #8: Rams Parade
What happened
We got out to 8/9 RAR at Gallipoli Barracks and jumped up on their Rams Parade to hand some of the lads from Workshops a framed photo of what they pulled off last year.
Last December they came down to the Weight of War Run in Brisbane, kitted up, and they did it representing both RAEME and 8/9 RAR. Tradesmen in plate carriers and budgy smugglers, carrying the corps and the battalion at the same time. It was a good look then and it is a better one framed.
They also raised $1,420.
What $1,420 actually bought
This is the part worth sitting with, because the number does not stay a number.
Money raised for Weight of War goes to our partners as programme places. At the rate we place veterans onto the Survive To Thrive Nation programme, $1,420 is 1.4 veterans.
Across all of 2025, Weight of War placed 10 veterans onto that programme.
So one lot of workshop lads, having a laugh in smugglers on a Saturday in December, carried 14% of the entire year's placements.
That is not a rounding error. That is a team deciding to turn up, and a real person getting a seat they would not otherwise have had.
The thank-yous
A massive thank you to Dave, the RSM of 8/9 RAR, and Ash, the ASM, for letting us present the frame on their parade and for giving Josh the floor to say a few words about what Weight of War is and why it exists.
Being handed a battalion's boozer parade to talk about veteran mental health is not nothing. It is a decision someone has to make, and these two made it.
To the Workshops lads: the frame is yours. Hang it where the new blokes will see it.
What we asked for
The same thing we are asking for here.
Saturday 5 December 2026. Brisbane. 21km, a 10kg vest, and a pair of budgy smugglers. Also a 10km, a 5km and a 1km walk, because the point is turning up, not the distance.
It is free to enter. Everyone. Serving, ex-serving, civilian, first-timer, the bloke who reckons he could probably do it. No entry fee, no catch.
Register: weightofwarrun.com/weight-of-war
If you are in a unit, a section, a workshop or a troop and you want to do what these blokes did, you do not need permission from us and you do not need a fundraising background. Get a handful of mates, turn up, and we will sort the rest out.
One last thing
This year we presented a Workshops photo.
Next year we would like to be presenting an 8/9 Battalion photo.
Over to you, Lads.
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