With beers in hand, it was a reunion of sorts for Scotty Palmer, Pete Brown, Tim Manton, Dean Corriea and Adam Boyd. The men graduated from the same class at Duntroon 26 years ago, in June 1991.

Mr Palmer said the group was like a “band of brothers”, while Mr Boyd said the friendship was firm, but also described it as loose.

“You’ll go many years without seeing people and you’ll just instantly reconnect,” Mr Boyd said.

“It’s a unique characteristic of military service, you spend many years apart but today we’re reminiscing, telling stories about when we were cadets at Duntroon 27 years ago, as if it just happened last week.”

Mr Palmer said it didn’t matter how long it had been between drinks for the five - which was up until last year more than a decade.

“We bonded together very early with our time in the Army,” Mr Palmer said.

“It feels like family. You can quickly get together and within minutes, you can rebuild the fact that you haven’t seen each other in years. That’s probably one of the most important factors of our time in the service together.”

Mr Brown said the five were all still part of the Defence Force in one way or another, whether it be through the Army or Reserves.

After 14 years out of the Army, Mr Brown has recently returned and now manages complaints from people in the field.

“Having come back to it, I’ve re-established relationships that have been dormant for some time,” Mr Brown said.

“Any of these guys would only have to make a phone call to me and I’d drop whatever I was doing and help them in any way I could.”

Mr Palmer said the men and other friends from the Army were “like family”.

“Catching up, having a few beers and spinning a few yarns. It’s been great,” he said.

Mr Palmer said the network of friends established through a career in the Defence Force were “often quite different” to those established outside of it.

“There is always that common thread” he said.