Dead soldier 'was stickler for safety'

A commando who was killed during a night exercise on Tuesday was an outstanding
soldier and a stickler for safety procedures, says the man who trained him as a
weapons instructor.

Lance Corporal Mason Edwards, 30, was fatally injured during an exercise using live
ammunition at the Cultana training area, near Port Augusta in South Australia.
A second soldier received minor injuries and is in a stable condition.
Tony Ledger, who knew Cpl Edwards when he was an air force cadet in Brisbane in the
1990s, said he had always been dedicated to the defence forces.
Cpl Edwards joined Mr Ledger as a weapons instructor for cadets before he joined the
army.
Mr Ledger said a young Cpl Edwards, who studied psychology at university, would give
his spare time to cadet activities like adventure training.
"Even when he was a cadet he was always going to join the defence force," he told AAP.
"He had a great rapport with the cadets. He was someone they could look up to and
they would relate to him."
Mr Ledger said given Cpl Edwards' background in weapons training, it was a shock to
learn of his death in an exercise.
"Mason, of all people," he said.
"He was so committed to his training. All he taught the cadets for instance was
safety - everything was safety, safety, safety."
Mr Ledger said Cpl Edwards was one of the most outstanding young men he had
encountered in cadets.
"He wasn't a run-of-the-mill troop," he said.
"I personally trained and qualified about 2,500 cadets over the years and Mason
would be in the top one per cent, easy.
"Just his attitude with everything, and he then took that on himself (as an
instructor) and passed that on."
Cpl Edwards was a pilot officer in the Australian Air Force Cadets before joining
the army.
In 2005 he won the Most Outstanding Soldier for Initial Employment Training at
Kapunda, NSW, before becoming a commando.
He served twice in Afghanistan and was preparing for his third deployment.
Meanwhile, Army chief Ken Gillespie said it was a sad day for the Australian Defence
Force, expressing condolences to the soldier's family, as well as his colleagues,
who "did everything that they could to save their mate".
"I know for a fact that Mason was a committed and determined soldier," Lt Gen
Gillespie told reporters on Wednesday, calling him a "great Australian".
"He was tremendously proud of his service and in his mates with which he served."
The task had been a competency requirement ahead of the team's deployment to
Afghanistan.
It required the team to "act in unison to apply lethal force in a complex
environment" - in this case, at close quarters or in a confined space.
Despite the incident, Lt Gen Gillespie backed the use of such exercises as a vital
part of army training and said it was likely to remain.
"Ultimately it is the use of live ammunition in these scenarios which gives them the
confidence to know that they can react in Afghanistan on first contact with the
enemy," he said, adding it was a "very essential" part of training.
Such exercises also saved lives during missions.
South Australian police are set to head an investigation into the incident, with
help from defence force investigators and the government workplace safety agency
Comcare.
Lt Gen Gillespie refused to comment on what may have happened, but said the incident
highlighted the enormous danger faced by serving soldiers.
"Something went wrong," he said, adding the aim of the investigations was to tell
him what went wrong "and what I need to do to fix it".
The army had called in a critical incident support team to help the other soldiers,
which includes psychological support, Lt Gen Gillespie said.
But it was expected the soldiers would all continue with their deployment to
Afghanistan.