Ted Diro discusses his role in avoiding military trouble at independence and his view that the military prepare a country for democracy as outlined in his Portsea thesis on the significance of the defence force in an independent Papua New Guinea. He discusses his troubles over the Rumkorem affair.
Ted Diro discusses the relationship between the military and the emerging political class prior to independence, and the military being in the enviable and prominent position of staging celebrations, parades and hosting VIPs.
Ted Diro relates how he was a member of cadets and his passion and interest for the military, and the high regard in which teachers and soldiers were held in PNG after World War II. He describes how his relatives were either soldiers or carriers in the war. He relates an anecdote about questioning the pay rate of incoming soldiers compared with the pay in the public service.
