Troy Knight

Troy’s mates know him as ‘Norm’ or ‘TK’. Born in 1977 to a single mother, Troy grew up as what he describes as a ‘typical Queensland boy’ enjoying surfing, playing rugby league and generally looking for mischief. 

It was Troy’s boundary pushing and risk taking that fuelled his thirst for adventure and made him walk into the Townsville Defence Force Recruiting office in 1999, just after the East Timor crisis had kicked off. 

Deflated at being told that Army Recruit training was bottlenecked for eight months, Troy was stopped by an Air Force Sergeant who asked if he knew about the RAAF Airfield Defence Guards. It was this sliding door moment, that would see Troy subsequently travel to Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond and become one of Australia’s first Combat Controllers attached to the Australian Special Forces. 

Co-authored by Australian Author, Brooke Strahan. Brooke is a veteran, author, blogger and farmer with a large U.S. following.