Documenting the Australians in Afghanistan

A column of supply vehicles, escorted by ASLAVs and Bushmasters, from Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force 2 (MRTF-2) is seen here on a logistics run to Patrol Base Wali, Afghanistan, in 2009. The route had been constantly modified owing to the threat posed by Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and, at this point, the convoy had been stopped for some time as engineers checked the way ahead for IEDs.
This photograph was taken as part of the Australian War Memorial’s Curators in the Field program. Nick Fletcher, the Memorial’s Head of Military Heraldry and Technology, travelled to Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force (ADF) in October 2009, together with Australian official war artist Shaun Gladwell. The Curators in the Field program continues the Memorial’s tradition of documenting the Australian experience at war by collecting records, photographs, oral histories, and objects for the National Collection.