The latest episode of Saluting Their Service: Contemporary Voices of Bravery features veteran Alison Gordon, whose path has taken her from Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) and Duntroon to Afghanistan, then on to leading polar expeditions and creating an insect-protein dog food business.
Hosted by Soldier On CEO Paul Singer, the episode follows Alison’s early life in a Defence family, her service through a period of high operational tempo, and the unexpected directions her career took after leaving the Army.
Alison grew up moving regularly as the daughter of a signals officer. As she puts it: ‘From a selfish, belligerent kid’s perspective, you’re just leaving your friends all the time, and that feels a little jarring.’
Despite that, she describes her childhood as grounded: ‘I had a great, stable, beautiful family life. I feel really privileged to be able to say that.’
She did not always see the Army in her future. ‘I didn’t think that that would be the life I would choose,’ she says. But by Year 11, she knew she wanted direction. ‘I wasn’t passionate about any particular avenue. I just didn’t really understand exactly what I wanted to do with my life.’
Seeing a student a year ahead of her go to ADFA made the option real.
Her memories of ADFA are shaped by the people: ‘The friends that I made and the friends that I’ve kept… I still keep in touch with those people.’ At the Royal Military College (RMC), the intensity lifted. ‘I found RMC somewhat more challenging than ADFA,’ she says.
‘They see you at your most fragile and vulnerable and worst moments.’
Appreciating leadership can look different
As a young officer, leadership did not come easily. ‘I thought I was doing the very best leadership I could, but I look back and think I was so young and had so much to learn.’ With few women in senior roles, she found it hard to model what she wanted her leadership to look like. ‘The leadership models I’d been presented didn’t really ring true to authentic leadership for me.’
Her first roles in signals, including troop command and instructor positions, pushed her quickly. She recalls the weight of responsibility: ‘If you muck that up, and if you didn’t make sure they were trained, then you were doing them a disservice, because at any point, any of them could be sent overseas.’
Alison later deployed to Afghanistan, where her reflections are careful and clear: ‘It was really challenging and really heartbreaking but also there were moments where you see the good in humanity.’ She shares examples of soldiers returning from multi-day patrols: ‘It would break my heart. I was thinking, no, no, we should be out there saying, atta boy, come back.’
After 17 years of service, she transitioned. A family trip to Antarctica years earlier had stayed with her, eventually opening the door to expedition work. Leading small-team operations in extreme environments felt familiar, but the science and ecology were new.
‘The more I learnt, it felt like the place became more rich to see.’
Over more than 150 Antarctic trips and extensive time in the Arctic, she witnessed shifts in climate patterns. ‘You could see these changes… the second and third order effects of a changing climate.’ She describes penguin chicks dying after rain instead of snow and species moving north as waters warmed.
This period sparked her next step: launching Feed for Thought, an insect-protein dog food. ‘I didn’t know how to say penguin in Mandarin, but that I could probably learn,’ she jokes of how she first reconnected with expedition work. Her business idea came later. ‘Insect protein is not only incredibly good for dogs… but it has a quarter of the carbon footprint.’
She admits that launching and running her own business has not always been easy. ‘If I’d known how hard it was going to be, I’m not 100% sure I would have done it.’ But she keeps going.
Balancing parenthood with professional ambitions
Travelling and working with a young child adds pressure. ‘My work day is effectively cut in half… it never feels like it’s enough of either.’
Alison also reflects on veteran support services and the hesitation she felt early in transition. ‘I was a bit shy about my military service… I never wanted to make it about me.’ She now sees the value clearly: ‘There is an organisation for almost every niche… knowing that you’re not alone is important.’
For veterans navigating their own next steps, she offers this: ‘You don’t have to know exactly what your next purpose is as you leave… if you are open to it, you will find other opportunities.’
The full episode – episode five in the 12-part series – is now available on the Soldier On website.
