By the time Linda Reardon was ready to put on a uniform, she felt like it was too late.
"I saw and heard about things Defence were doing and thought 'wow', maybe I should have considered this as a career," Mrs Reardon said.
Although the compulsory retirement age for reservists is 65 years of age, Mrs Reardon felt the opportunity to pull on a uniform was behind her and she could best serve by applying to deploy overseas.
Almost ten years and two deployments later, the contract manager still wears pants and a blouse to work.
"What I'm doing is no different to working for any large organisation, but working for Headquarters Middle East, I feel like I'm making a difference," she said.
Mrs Reardon heads a team of four public servants deployed on Operation Accordion, the ADF support mission to operations in the Middle East region.
They manage contractors and operators to make sure uniformed personnel at Camp Baird and forward bases have everything they need to carry out their mission.
SERCO is the largest contractor, providing more than 20 services to Defence.
They are one of many Mrs Reardon and her team oversees.
With limited resources outside of Australia, Defence relies on contractors to provide forces with everything from food to firefighting, pest control and petrol.
Now 62, Mrs Reardon has finished her second and final deployment before calling it a day on a 20-year career as a base and contract manager in almost a dozen locations worldwide.
"There are only four of us in the Middle East, so it's a rare opportunity for public servants to deploy," Mrs Reardon said.
"At my age, to come and do this and feel like I contributed something, I feel pretty proud."
