Martin 'Jock' Wallace, grew up in Tamworth, New South Wales, and enlisted in the Australian Army in 1987 at the age of seventeen. He was a member of 152 Signals Squadron and served as a signalman with the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) when he was awarded the Medal for Gallantry (MG) for his actions on 2 March 2002 during Operation Anaconda while attached to the United States 10th Mountain Division in the Shahi Kot Valley, Afghanistan. He was aged 32 at the time.