Too humble to say it herself, but Anastacia Kompos is a trailblazer. The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) veteran was one of the first Greek Australian women to join the force in 1986, breaking all cultural stereotypes.
She was the first woman to march with a rifle on Anzac Day in Queensland and to do a guard of honour at the Shrine of Remembrance in Brisbane with an SLR rifle.
Kompos did that despite being told she couldn’t because she was a woman. She had to borrow male uniform – shirt, pants and a tie- as there was no uniform for women at that time.
In 1992 she was the first female from the RAAF to take part in the Variety Club Car Bash, raising money for children.
Importantly, Kompos secured a new ruling and change of legislation from the Australian Government which officially recognised PTSD for women in the Armed Services: Army, Air Force and Navy.
The darker battle against abuse
While in the Airforce, Kompos was physically abused which left indelible emotional and physical scars. For all her groundbreaking success in the defence forces, Kompos waged a seven-year battle to secure compensation for physical and emotional abuse she had suffered while serving.
“No one had ever done it. Even solicitors didn’t know what to do, but it did destroy me,” she told Neos Kosmos.
“It crushed me afterwards.
“It took its toll on my health in many ways, and I only came back out in 2018, back out into the world, so it has been pretty devastating.”
“It’s only now 33 years later that people are going, that was a big deal and I’m like, ‘really?’ I tried to tell everyone back then and I was shut down. So I buried it. People are letting me know it’s a big deal, but I still don’t feel that.”
Her eligibility was initially rejected because she was female and 32-years-old at the time.
Following the victory, her health declined and she was almost completely bed-ridden for 18 years with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome & Fibromyalgia while being addicted to five prescription drugs.
Late last year she was diagnosed with a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) from the physical abuse she received.
She looked into complementing all she was doing in her healing journey through natural therapies that helped support her, utilising both natural and medical treatments that have kept her alive to where she is now. This is something she undertook herself.
Now after more than three decades she is ready to open up and also help others.
Kompos has started a podcast called Voice to Heal, hoping her story can encourage others, regardless of their gender, to speak up.
“I’m here to give people through the podcast a chance because when we speak, it’s really healing and empowering,” she said.
“There’s abuse and stuff still happening now that us older generations are wanting to help the younger girls and say ‘you’re not alone, you’re not the only ones. This has been going on for a long time.’
“It’s time for us to start taking some of our power back because it took my life. It took my career. It was a big deal.
“So that’s why I started the podcast. It was time and it’s something that helps me keep living. It gives me a purpose because when I left (the force), I didn’t know who I was. I was so lost. I was so displaced.”
When Kompos first opened up to the deep emotions kept inside and spoke up, she said it unsettled her for months. Yet it was for the better and she wants to provide an opportunity for others to ‘Voice to Heal’.
Voice to Heal by the Greek Australian warrior
Kompos was born in a small NSW town called Junee. Her parents migrated to Australia in the 1950s. Her mum was born on the island of Lesvos in 1940 during a bomb raid on her little village of Akrasi. Her grandfather was a prisoner of war during WWI by the Ottomans. Her father’s village Ombrianos in the mountains of Thessaloniki suffered greatly during the Greek Civil War. While her older brother was also in the Army Reserves.
Kompos is proud to be one of the first Greek Aussie women in the military, but is humble and has difficulty self-promoting herself.
“I feel that with the PTSD, it’s a bit hard. I can’t talk myself up,” she said.
And while she did face many obstacles in her time, her heritage was not one of those.
“One of my nicknames was ‘Greek Goddess’ by one of the guys in the military, so I don’t feel that being a Greek female in there was in any way any hindrance.”
“They were very accepting of every culture. We had Indigenous, everyone was the same. Doesn’t matter who you were across the board, everyone was treated equal.
“When it came to being the Greek female, there’s nothing negative I can actually say about that.”
Voice to Heal is on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can also find it on YouTube at Anastacia Blue Beyond Guide.
