Issue
10
June 2006
64 Pages This Issue
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Issue
10 64 Pages This Issue Buy this issue now and have it mailed directly to your door
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The sterling work accomplished by the AFP-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands suffered a setback in April as political tensions turned violent and left Honiara's Chinatown all-but reduced to ashes. Seventeen police were injured in the initial rioting - two, who suffered broken bones, required repatriation to Australia for medical treatment. But, as AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty pointed out,were it not for the earlier removal of thousands of guns from the streets of the capital, we could certainly have been counting dead bodies instead of broken bones and burned buildings. Words Brian
Hartigan |
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While a massive world-wide TV audience enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games, the ADF was involved in its own record-breaking performance. Under the guise of Operation Acolyte, 1000 members of Joint Task Force 636 patrolled the skies, land and waters of Melbourne while others assisted with ceremonial and general support to help ensure the Games were safe, secure and successful. Words Brian
Hartigan and Lieutenant Cameron Jamieson |
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The ADF's prompt response to Cyclone Larry's obliteration of the far north Queensland coast and Atherton Tablelands alleviated the human suffering as Defence delivered life-saving aid to those in dire need. Many of the units involved in the relief effort were redeployed from the field and refitted in order to assist. Some left their own families and property, also affected by the storms, to do their bit in a time of need. Words Captain
Al Green |
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Almost since the advent of mechanical flight, man has used his new invention as a weapon of war. Yet the new machine had its limitations. The necessity for fixed-wing aircraft to use prepared or semi-prepared takeoff and landing strips, and the limited capacity of rotary-winged aircraft to lift vast loads over long ranges, had the potential to limit the aircraft's usefulness in delivering overwhelming numbers of fighting men to a battlefield. That was until someone proposed that the men jump out of the airplane while it was still flying!
Words Brian
Hartigan |
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When civil war broke out in the Balkans in 1991, Danish troops were among those eventually developed under a UN flag to monitor and maintain a fragile peace. Hamstrung by restrictive rules of engagement, their 'fairly safe peacekeeping operation' turned deadly, however, as their area of responsibility placed them centre stage in a feudal war. First Lieutenant Lars Olesen was among them and reports how he and his colleagues became live targets on a battlefield where their capacity to defend themselves was hamstrung by politics and red tape. Words and Pics 1st Lieutenant Lars Olesen |
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The one thing that sets the latest generation of soft-skinned special operations vehicles apart from those of yesteryear is that they are all based on a stock, heavy-duty 4WD of one type or another. As the Australian Army looks to the future and a replacement for its Perentie 6x6 and 4x4 Land Rover special operations vehicles under Project Redfin, the scope of choice in this very special field seems quite large. Words Mark
Azzopardi |
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For many
of the young men and women of the 1RAR Battalion Group, the 17 weeks on
the Horn of Africa represented the most time they had spent away from
Australia. Adjusting to the change from peacetime training to warlike
operations was one thing - dealing with the physical and psychological
separation from family and friends was another. As even the most hardened
professional soldiers among us felt some pangs of homesickness, we all
had to find ways to invest a little bit of home into our strange new environment. Words Wayne
Cooper |
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Plus...
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