Natalie Klak

I felt strongly about joining the army ever since I was 15. At that time I didn’t know that my father, EA (Teddy) Houghton, a Yindjibarndi man, had been accidentally killed on an army exercise in 1969, not long after he was conscripted. It was only decades later, when I was reconnected with my Yindjibarndi family that I learned of my father’s military service. I felt the call to serve even more strongly once I knew that, and enlisted proudly in the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police at age 31, attaining the rank of Lance Corporal. Military service runs deep in both my parents’ families and I wear my father’s National Serviceman’s Medal with immense pride.