As a Catholic College Wodonga student, Samantha Crompvoets would never have imagined her work as a sociologist would spark the biggest inquiry into war crime allegations in recent memory.
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But 22 years after her school graduation, that is exactly what the now-Canberra based expert set into motion.
Dr Crompvoets was engaged by Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell in 2015 to review the culture of the Australian Special Operations Forces.
More than 1000 interviews with soldiers and insiders led her work in a confronting direction.
"I feel ill-equipped to provide a sophisticated analysis on the descriptions of events below," she wrote in a letter about her findings.
"The gravity of these descriptions does not simply come from the details of particular events, it comes from the emphasis that most often accompanied these stores - "it happened all the time"."
There is a reason Dr Crompvoets warns readers to consider their mental health in reviewing her findings, about "body count competitions", "cover-ups" and more.
The report triggered a four-year investigation by the Inspector General of the ADF.
Findings were made public last week.
"Today, the Australian Defence Force is rightly held to account for allegations of grave misconduct by some members of our Special Forces community on operations in Afghanistan," Lieutenant-General Campbell told media.
"It is important to note that over the period from 2005 to 2016, more than 26,000 Australians served in Afghanistan, 3000 of them in the Special Operations Task Group.
"An enormous amount of good work was done by many.
"What the Inspector-General finds is greatly at odds with that good effort.
"His report details credible information regarding deeply disturbing allegations of unlawful killings by some."
The public release of the findings and a commitment by the Australian government to act on the allegations and cultural issues raised was the culmination of a five-year journey for Dr Crompvoets.
She told The Border Mail of her pride in her work.
"It's actually overwhelming ... from a couple of years ago when I was having my credibility questioned, to now, with people all over the world contacting me with thanks," Dr Crompvoets said.
"It's even everyday people who might have a son or daughter in a military, or people really wanting to record this as quite a significant part of Australia's history."
The Special Operations Command culture and interactions review was not Dr Crompvoets' first work for the ADF.
"When I was at the Australian National University in the medical school, I started doing some work for the Department of Veterans' Affairs about female veterans and looking at their experiences," she said.
"That then moved to me not just looking at gender but much bigger issues of organisational culture and capability.
"I left ANU and started my own business in 2015, and in doing that, we've done research like what we've done for Defence, but also for the AFL, the university sector - a whole range.
"It's looking at how organisational structures impact people's lived experiences.
"Sociology equips you to ask critical questions."
Dr Crompvoets found her passion for the field while at the University of Melbourne.
"I left Catholic College and I went to Melbourne Uni to study veterinary science, and pretty quickly realised that I was really interested in doing research," she said.
"I think it [veterinary science] was more of a childhood hobby, as I'd grown up in the country.
"I'd always loved writing and researching, so when I got to Uni I think it opened up what the possibilities were.
"I studied psychology and a discipline called history and philosophy of science.
"From there, I did my honours, went to ANU and got a PhD scholarship, learning and teaching sociology.
"I was interested in the application of social science and how you can apply feminism in policy making and things like that."
Misinformation about feminism was behind some of the abuse Dr Crompvoets sustained in the years leading up to the inquiry's release.
She writes on her company's website that in reality, "feminism was a huge enabler for my work".
"Now that I am able to speak about these issues I would like to make it very clear: feminism is entirely consistent with Defence values. Those who decry feminism are likely to find it difficult to uphold the values of our Australian Defence Force," Dr Crompvoets said.
She believes corporate Australia and large organisations are taking the right steps towards change.
"It started as a narrative of political correctness, and that you need more women on boards because it's the right thing to do, whereas now, people realise diversity has a quantifiable output or outcome," Dr Crompvoets said.
"It affects decision-making, governance and a whole range of things.
"A theory of change means you can articulate what it is that you want to achieve across a whole range of dimensions - not just numbers of women for example - you are actually able to measure how you're getting there.
"Which doesn't tend to happen in organisations, they just say 'we want to change, we're going to change', but they can get a bit lost."
Dr Crompvoets sees the path to change for the Defence Force as being all-encompassing.
"Special Forces are recruited from inside, so they have to go through that Kapooka, or Royal Military College, pathway," she said.
"I know it's certainly changing Defence in terms of how they integrate education on ethical decision-making.
"I think what's really important here is actually people who are parents, watching what the Chief of the Defence Force says.
"As a parent myself, you watch this and you want to be able to trust the organisation."
To think the Army communities in her home town, which remains that of her parents and friends, would one day be so powerfully affected by her work is significant for the Canberra-based expert.
"If I look back at where I was in year 12 in Wodonga, I really had no idea of what the future held," Dr Crompvoets said.
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"I thought I had a really set pathway, I thought I knew what my life trajectory would look like.
"It's been much more varied and exciting than I could have hoped. And certainly my upbringing really equipped me to be really open-minded and confident, to say yes to every opportunity that's been presented to me.
"Again I'm at that point in life where there's lots of unknowns, but it's exciting."
- If this story has raised issues for you, please contact Open Arms veterans and families counselling: 1800 011 046