Kate Munari remembers the moment when her helicopter was fired on by a machine gun in Afghanistan. She was at the controls of a helicopter, around 30 metres above the ground, when a passenger on the back of a motorcycle armed with a machine gun started firing.
“We weren’t at a very high altitude and it was a very big helicopter, so a large target,” she says.
Fortunately, the shooter missed the target so Munari, her crew and passengers were able to complete their mission and return safely.
For Munari, who did three tours of Afghanistan as part of Commando Helicopter Force and flew almost every day over those three tours for a total of 11 months, being under fire was a key moment in her life and helps her define what came before, and after the event.
“You spend all your time preparing for that situation,” she says. “You are in a war zone and that is the ultimate scenario.”
“But then your training really does kick in, and I’d had probably five or six years of pilot training to go into that moment and not skip a beat, because while the emotions were there they were controlled.”
Munari’s takeaway was that at a pivotal and key moment of danger, she – and her colleagues on the helicopter – had a lifetime of experience and preparation to get to that point.
For Munari it was a journey which began when, as a teenager still at high school, she attended a lunchtime presentation on careers in the Defence Force.
“None of my family were in the military and I had no real idea what I wanted to do until that moment,” she says.
“But it all just resonated with me. It appealed to all the parts of life that I value, such as adventure, challenges, being outdoors and a job that was different every day.”
From there she committed to a path as a helicopter pilot and began a 17-year career in the Navy, where she was the second female helicopter pilot and the first to fly in Afghanistan.
Her service included four and a half years in the UK with the Royal Marines, the role which sent her to Afghanistan.
There were other life defining experiences too. Munari was part of the Diamond Jubilee Pageant in 2012 to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, attended the Queen’s garden party at Buckingham Palace and met Prince, now King Charles on several occasions.
“My career was full of hard work but also had some amazing once in a lifetime experiences,” says Munari.
Her military career ended with a medical discharge with a badly injured knee, an injury which means that today she “can’t run, can’t jump,” which makes it a challenge in keeping up with her two young children.
“The first thing I always talk about is accepting the here and now, and I have no time for those ‘what if’ statements,” says Munari.
“I didn’t meet my other half until I got medically discharged and came to Canberra, and if that hadn’t happened then I wouldn’t have met him and we wouldn’t have our lovely children and the life we have together.”
In addition to her work as a motivational speaker, Munari is now also an Air Accident Investigator with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, a role where she is able to leverage her deep experience and the psychological lessons she’s learned.
“I’ll go to accident sites where multiple people may have died but sadly I can’t control that,” she says. “The accident has happened, there is no point in me focusing on the devastation of that.”
“I need to focus on how we can prevent it happening in the future, and that means controlling what I can from that moment forward to come out with some positive learnings.”
Much of it goes back to that moment when Munari’s helicopter was fired on in Afghanistan.
“I couldn’t control the enemy at that moment, or if they were going to shoot at me,” she says.
“I’ve done sky diving, race car driving and bungee jumping and while that pushes the limits there is still an element of control, but against the enemy it was very different.”
“What I could control was the helicopter and use my skill and experience to fly it to the next landing site.”
These learnings have wider relevance in everyday life.
“When some deadline has been changed on your project, when the finances have been cut, these are things you can’t control,” says Munari.
“What you can do is focus on what you can control and how that can make you productive and that you have a path ahead.
“You can only change what comes next, so moving forward means you have to accept where you are now.”
Kate will be speaking at the 2025 IPWEA International Public Works Conference in Sydney from 25 to 28 August. Visit our website for more information.
