Australian soldiers checking their target sheets at the Al Minhad Air Base firing range facility. ...

Australian soldiers checking their target sheets at the Al Minhad Air Base firing range facility. All Australian Defence Force personnel, prior to their deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan, are required to conduct Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration (RSO&I) activities, including familiarisation briefs and range practice.

One of a series of photographs taken by Nick Fletcher, Senior Curator of Military Heraldry and Technology at the Australian War Memorial, as part of the Memorial's Curators in the Field program. This program continues the Memorial's tradition of documenting Australia's experience of war, through observing the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and collecting records, photographs, oral histories and objects for the Memorial's National Collection. Nick travelled to Afghanistan with the ADF from January to February in 2011, together with fellow staff members Stephanie Boyle, Senior Curator of Film and Sound; and Peter Pedersen, Head of the Research Centre.