I joined the army as a Permanent Force member from January 1980 through to February 1985, when I resigned. During this time I did Basics in Voortrekkerhoogte, was transferred for JLs to the school of Artillery in Potchefstroom, where, at the end of 1980, I received the rank of 2nd Lt. In the beginning of 1981, I was sent to Rooikop (43 Battery) in Walvis Bay to train the first SWATF intakes. This was also where I met my wife (to whom I have been married for the past 30 years!). I went back to School of Artillery, got married, and did the Formative Course at Army College, Voortrekkerhoogte in 1981, then back to 4 Artillery (then still 4 Field) Regiment, from where I was sent up to 61 Mech Bn Gp for Operation Daisy, during which I was appointed as Battery Captain.

I had been deployed as an artillery Observation Post Officer (OPO) for the G5s and had the incredible opportunity to have had a panoramic view of the biggest battle in Africa since World War 2 from my observation post on the Chambinga Heights east of Cuito Cuanavale on that day of the 23rd of March 1988. My five years of training as a Permanent Force Artillery officer (from 1980 to 1985) and the experience gained thus, had thoroughly prepared me for when I was suddenly called upon to serve as a Citizen Force Artillery officer for Regiment Potchefstroom University during Operation Packer in 1988. After the army I focused on the computer (IT) industry and I am currently a consultant/analyst/programmer with my own business. I started the War In Angola Information Portal in 2007 as a sideline project which now have grown into an online information system that serves some 250,000 pages of information per month to over 6,500 unique visitors, and have a membership of over 7,000 registered users. As a wargames enthusiast I am able to recreate and refight many of the battles of the Angolan War on a table in miniature form in a creative and insightful manner, and I therefore also use the War In Angola portal as an exhibit of the hobby I am so passionate about.