One soldier who has seen plenty of combat action is MAG58 gunner PTE Thomas Jane.

His most memorable contact look place on March 5 this year.

'We were at Tutac and we were taking accurate PKM (machine gun) fire and I was told to move back and cover my arc while I had my back up against a quala wall," PTE Jane said.

'I had my MAG58 barrel resting on another wall in front of me with the bipod legs stretched out in front of the wall so it wouldn't kick back into my shoulder while I fired it.

"As I had to cover a large area I had one hand on my pis­tol and one hand on the gun.

PTE Jane and his males continued to be engaged by the PKM gunner.

"I thought I saw someone walking in front of me in the distance, but it turned out to be a sheep," he said.

"Then we received a whole heap of rounds, we could hear them zipping over our heads and then I remember seeing a massive amount of dust kick up in front of me.

"My mate said 'dude. f***, they're shooting at you man'."

PTE Jane continued to cover his arcs and then something happened to his weapon. "A round hit the side of my bar­rel and it split the side of the flash Suppressor." he said.

"As soon as the round hit I dropped back onto my arse and I was still holding the trigger and luckily the wall in front of me gave me cover.

"I was shaking my mates were asking me if I was hit and I was patting myself down to see if I was bleeding."

PTE Jane wasn't badly hurt and tried to get back into the fight.

"I tried to re-engage, but I kept getting stoppages and after checking my ammunition I still couldn't get it going.

"I was happy it hit the barrel and not me. I was very lucky."
 

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