The two tonne old soldier is being brought out of retirement for one night only tonight as hundreds of Brisbane's highest ranking soldiers celebrate the gala Defence Force Ball at the Brisbane Convention Centre.

One of the last Iroquois helicopters to see active service has been brought out of storage and shipped to the convention centre where it will take pride of place beside a high tech personel carrier, The Bushmaster, and Defence Force Recruiting's hotted up car Armygeddon.

During their more than 30 years of service the helicopters served in Vietnam, the Middle East, Soloman Islands, Bougainville and in numerious civilian deployments across Australia.

Kevin Kemp, logistics manager at the Oakey-based Australian Army Aviation Centre, has spent more than 25 years in the defence force and believes that the aircraft are reliable and powerful. However, their time had come to fade from the front line.

"They're a good aircraft, they've done very good service for Australia but technology takes over and we move on. Its been a very good aircraft from the defence point of view," he said.

MC for the night will be Jamie Durie, fresh from his win at this year's Chelsea Flower Show in the UK.

As well as the military hardware there will be military dogs, precision military marching displays, naval diving and lucky door prizes to entertain the troops.

The ball will raise money for Legacy and Redkite - a children's cancer charity.