Issue 10
June 2006

64 Pages This Issue

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CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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
Pics ADF

 
CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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
Pics ADF

 
CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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
Pics ADF

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CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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
Pics ADF

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CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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


CONTACT Air Land & Sea

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
Pics various


CONTACT Air Land & Sea - Somalia

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.
The series continues...

Words Wayne Cooper
Pics Supplied by Wayne Cooper, and ADF

Plus...

  • Entertainment in Siani
  • Sniper-rifle poster
  • Chinooks in Afghanistan
  • Letters to the Editor
  • The Big Picture
  • Heads up

Plus our regular columns;

    • Military Fitness by Don Stevenson and Major Travis Faure
    • Just Soldiers by WO1 Darryl Kelly
    • Letters from the front by Private Henry Wright
    • Games reviews
    • Back Brief
    • and lots of competition giveaways