TWO Townsville soldiers have been awarded prestigious commendations for their role in evacuating refugees from Afghanistan after the fall of Kabul.

First Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) Corporals Quinn Jensen and Corporal Matthew Reid were named some of Army’s most promising leaders earning the Jonathan Church Good Soldiering Award and the Hassett Trophy respectively.

Amid the chaos of Kabul just days after the city fell into the hands of the Taliban a 25-year-old Corporal Quinn Jensen was given a mission to find and help evacuate a group of young female soccer players as they desperately fled the country.

Australian Army Corporal Quinn Jensen from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment is awarded the John Church Ethical Soldier Award. *** Local Caption *** Quinn Jensen Portrait.

As throngs of people rushed to the Kabul Airfield desperate to find a way out of the country Australian troops facilitated the evacuation of more than 4000 refugees and visa holders

He and Corporal Reid were two of the more than 200 Australian personnel deployed to Afghanistan last August just months after troops were withdrawn from the almost 20-year military commitment in the country.

In less than 48 hours Ready Combat Team, which included troops from 1RAR, was assembled and flown into the Middle East.

The young women who played on the Afghanistan women’s national football team were in extreme danger after the Taliban assumed control of the country and imposed rules which banned women from education and sport.

Corporal Jensen said he arrived in Afghanistan to “pretty much just chaos”.

“(The team) got their visas approved and the task came down through the Chain of Command that they were at the Abbey gate where I was located,” he said.

First Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR)Corporal Matthew Reid

The 25-year-old was tasked with picking the girls, who were each carrying a FIFA badge to identify them, out of the thousands-strong crowd that had formed outside the airport.

In order to get girls to safety Corporal Jensen negotiated with a British commanding officer, who had banned all travel through the gate to prevent the swelling crowds overrunning the airport.

“They were just young women, and where we were pulling them out of there were just thousands of people just sort of trampling around on each other, so they were very distraught,” he said,

“Luckily a lot of them had their family with them and some of them were with coaching staff and stuff like that.”

Corporal Jensen received a gold-level commendation for his actions in helping bring the girls to safety and was awarded the prestigious Jonathan Church Good Soldiering Award.

Each year the accolade is awarded annually to junior soldiers and officers who personify compassionate and ethical soldiering and go above and beyond in their roles.

Governor-General Gen (retd) David Hurley presented Corporal Reid, 29, with the Royal Australian Regiment Foundation’s Hassett Trophy earlier this month.

Members of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment ready combat team assist the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with locating Afghan Australian visa holders attempting to enter the congested Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport. *** Local Caption *** The Ready Combat Team including members of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, have been working with Australian Government officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Department of Home Affairs and Australian Border Force to identify, collect and assist Australian nationals and approved foreign nationals enter Hamid Karzai International Airport at Abbey Gate.

Corporal Reid was deployed as a section commander in charge of about nine soldiers tasked with providing security, searching and general assistance to DFAT officers.

“It was nothing like anything I’d ever experienced before. As I got off the plane, I saw different militaries all over and flights going everywhere,” he said.

“The hardest thing was that it was pretty hard to see that all they had was just the clothes on their back trying to get out of the country.

Corporal Reid also worked with evacuees in transitioning them back to Australia.

“There were a lot of tears of relief, and heartbreak among the evacuees for their family members that didn’t make it,” he said.

The annual trophy is awarded each year to the Royal Australian Regiment’s most outstanding junior leader.