When they were teenagers in Orange cousins Joshua McDonald and Malcolm Davis enjoyed hunting and fishing together.
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After leaving James Sheahan Catholic High School Private Davis joined the Army.
It wasn’t long before his cousin was there too.
“We were always close growing up through school,” Private McDonald said.
“He was a year above me and he joined and I joined three months later,” he said.
After training at Kapooka, near Wagga Wagga, and Singleton together, they were both sent to join the 5th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment based in Darwin.
And then they were deployed to duty in Iraq from November 21 to June 8.
Private McDonald, who was back in Orange on leave this week, said it had been a great experience for them.
“It was pretty good,” he said.
“We were just training the Iraqi forces.
“We were on a base over there, we didn’t really go and see anything.”
He said that once their leave finished they would head back to base in Darwin before their next assignment.