Issue
9
March 2006
64 Pages This Issue
Buy this issue now and have it mailed directly to your door
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Issue
9 64 Pages This Issue Buy this issue now and have it mailed directly to your door
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It's a pretty slow day at the office when the phone rings. On the other end, a female voice asks if I have any plans for next week? Well, as attractive as the old Macster may be, my calendar is pretty free. So, what's on offer? New Zealand public relations officer Danielle Coe wanted to know if I'd be interested in accompanying a 40 Squadron Herc throwing SAS members out over Auckland, followed by a bit of low-level flying over the Waikato via the west coast of the North Island. "I'm there! You don't have to ask twice", I reply.
Words Kiwi Mac |
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Flour and paint bombs fly as thick as the language as New Zealand troops try to keep pro-government and Pohangina Liberation Front supporters apart as the confrontation escalates outside the schoolhouse near the Toa Island settlement of Marton. The New Zealand taxpayer has invested an awful lot of money in the new Lav and Pinzgauer vehicles and we've got to show them that their money was well spent. Words and pics Kiwi Mac |
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In an ancient and forbidding land on the crossroads of Islam and Buddhism, a Kiwi Army chaplain finds an open mind and a warm welcome among a people who now call him... Mullah Mike. Words Kiwi
Mac |
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Denmark, that small northern European monarchy close to the hearts of Australians, is also doing its bit in the interests of rebuilding Iraq. A 500-strong Danish battalion - known as DANBN - is based with British forces at Shaiba Log Base close to Basra as part of the Multinational Division South East, completing six-month rotations. Operation Black Sauroman - close-to-life simulations in the cold north of Europe helps prepare Danish battalions to play their part in the rehabilitation of Iraq. Words and pics Second Lieutenant Lars Olsen |
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pacific 2006 - a major trade-only naval and maritime exposition and congress, was held last month, drawing the cream of national and international sea-focused business big and small to Sydney's Darling Harbour. The biennial event is as significant to the naval and maritime industries as Avalon is to aviation. Words Brian
Hartigan |
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At 0850 local time on 8 October 2005 - less than a year after a tsunami swept away the lives and livelihoods of millions around the Indian Ocean - Mother Nature struck again with cruel and devastating intent. Unleashing an earthquake of rare intensity, she struck at the heart of the politically sensitive and impoverished Kashmir region between Pakistan and India, snuffing out the lives of more than 87,000 men women and children. Among the dead were vast numbers of the region's medical practitioners. Among the countless buildings and vital basic infrastructure destroyed were up to 6000 hospitals, clinics and other medical facilities - a devastating blow designed to visit longer and lasting misery on the helpless and innocent. Words Brian
Hartigan and Flight Lieutenant Trevor Grant |
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When it comes to technological innovation, there is no question that the US military leves every other defence force for dead. It can deploy faster, reach out further, hit harder and keep fighting longer in the sea, air and land battlespaces than all others. Should other nations such as Australia, with a much smaller defence force, a local industry a fraction of the size and capability of the US and less taxpayer dollars per capita to fund it all, blindly adopt the same sort of cutting-edge technologies and systems as the US? Words Ian
Bostock |
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Behind every great man is a great woman and, while there's no doubt Lyn Cosgrove played a very important role in supporting her man, there was another strong, dedicated woman behind Peter Cosgrove. Although 'behind' is more a figure of speech, given that Sergeant Sandy McInerney was usually in front of her boss - and behind the wheel of his car. Words Brian
Hartigan |
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The Stree Machine Summernats car festival in Canberra was witness to the weirdest sight in its 19th year - a humble Army Land Rover 6x6 blowing the competition away. But, this was no ordinary Land Rover. This beast - christened Armygeddon - sports a very non-Army paint job, plus the mother of all engines - a 7 litre, blown, Chev. But why? To attract rev-heads into the Army, of course. Words and
pics Brian Hartigan |
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In 1993,
a social experiment of unprecedented scale was taking place in Somalia.
My comrades and I found ourselves willing participants in what we hoped
would not be the last great folly of the 20th Century. The task of successfully
rebuilding a nation, of returning its people from the brink of extinction
now seems as audacious as it was unlikely. But to the thousand aussies
who had joined the US-led Operation Restore Hope, the reality of its success
was irrelevant - it was our great test, the chance to prove our worth
as soldiers, to ourselves and the world. Words Wayne
Cooper |
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Plus...
Plus our regular columns;
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