Dr Mark Lax is a retired air force officer who joined the RAAF in 1974 and retired in 2024. He had a wide and varied flying career including test flying the F-111. Later he had senior staff positions in Air Force HQ and in HQADF. Subsequently, he reinvented himself as a military historian, educator and author. In later years, Mark has continued to provide specialist advice to the Office of Air Force History and is one of the authors of the official history of the ADF in Afghanistan and Iraq where he wrote the air force chapters. He now writes and publishes widely. He is a graduate of the Universities of Melbourne and NSW and of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mark is married to Margaret, and they have two daughters and three grandchildren. Both Mark and Margaret are Legatees with Canberra Legacy and Mark is currently Chair of Legacy Australia.