More Defence news: 05 November - 11 November 2007
| Navy band duo take trumpets to television | Red poppies for Remembrance Day | Famous WA battalions heading to Solomons | HMAS Tarakan retrieves 'ghost net' in Arafura Sea | Australian soldier found dead in Timor | Top End turtles rescued on high sea | Media reporting of Armidale Class Patrol Boats | Article misleading regards cancelled Land 133 project | Sergeant Michael Lyddiard in good hands in NATO hospital | |
| Navy band duo take trumpets to television By Sarah Vickery
LS Panichi originally joined the Navy Reserves in 1981 and after a 20 year break, he re-joined in 2003. He can regularly be spotted on Sunday night in Idol’s band playing the trumpet supporting Carl and the other contestants. Paul has played in Idol’s band since the first season it aired. His career spans over the decades playing the trumpet on some of Australia’s highest profile TV programs such as the Don Lane show in Melbourne and the Midday Show between 1982 and 1998. He has also recorded for rock bands and artists such as Tom Jones. Despite his full schedule, LS Panichi maintains his contact with the Navy Reserve component of the RAN Band rehearsing with them every Tuesday evening. He said it’s quite a contrast performing with the Navy Band compared with his commercial work. Paul said he and Carl have been friends since the two of them joined the Navy Band in 2003 where they have been budding trumpet players since. “I’ve tried to help Carl through the competition, we’re good friends. It’s a very stressful process and he knows some of the other musicians too, so having these good friendships really does help when on stage,” LS Panichi said. “I think he’s done really well, he’s come good the last three weeks. What a lot of people don’t know is he’s been working really hard every day on his singing. “When Carl started doing the more poppy music, for example Turn Your Love Around by George Bensen, I think that was the turning point. “To the RAN Band Director of Music Lieutenant Commander Phil Anderson’s credit the Navy band does a very broad range of music. In one concert they will start with concert band, go to rock band, big band, a small jazz group and then go to fanfare theme, for Carl that’s been a really great thing. “I picked this would be the final three, they are all really nice people and very talented and at this point any of them could win,” LS Panichi said. |
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Red poppies for Remembrance Day
Australian Defence Force Academy Officer Cadets Nicholas Ledger of Rutherglen Victoria and Melissa Joy of Brisbane QLD were doing their bit on the front steps of Defence Headquarters at Russell in Canberra with Lieutenant Colonel (Ret'd) John Merrick of Canberra. John is a veteran of the Vietnam War and served 27 years with the Army. At 11am on 11 November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years of continuous warfare. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. In Australia on the 75th anniversary of the armistice, 11 November 1993, Remembrance Day ceremonies again became the focus of national attention. On that day the remains of an unknown Australian soldier, exhumed from a First World War military cemetery in France, were ceremonially entombed in the Australian War Memorial. Remembrance Day ceremonies were conducted simultaneously in towns and cities all over the country, culminating at the moment of burial at 11am and coinciding with the traditional two minutes’ silence. This ceremony, which touched a chord across the Australian nation, re-established Remembrance Day as a significant day of commemoration. More: Remembrance Day tradition | Significance of the red poppy |
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| Famous WA battalions heading to Solomons 8 November - More than a 100 Reservist soldiers and officers from the famous 11th/28th Battalion and 16th Battalion in Western Australia will farewell their families before they deploy to the Solomon Islands this Friday, November 9. The deployment adds to the rich history of the Brigade, which was involved in the liberation of Villers-Bretonneux in the First World War. The 13 Brigade soldiers, who will be joined by members of 9 Brigade based in South Australia and Tasmania, are deploying to the Solomon Islands on Operation ANODE, the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands. More: Operation ANODE website |
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HMAS Tarakan retrieves 'ghost net' in Arafura Sea
A death trap to marine life caught in its tangled reach, and posing potential quarantine risks, the ghost-net was retrieved through a joint operation involving Customs, the Djelk Sea Rangers and the Royal Australian Navy’s Balikpapan-Class Heavy Landing Craft HMAS Tarakan. Assigned the retrieval task by Border Protection Command, HMAS Tarakan sailed from Cairns to rendezvous with the sea rangers, 10 nautical miles off the coast near Maningrida, for an escort to the net’s precise location. HMAS Tarakan Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Chris Doolin said the net’s size required assessment before it could be brought on deck. “There was clearly more to the net’s mass than the various floats on the water’s surface indicated, so with a weight limit of 7.5 tonne for the ship’s bow door, we needed to look at cutting it apart piece by piece to remove it from the sea," LCDR Doolin said. “Even though there were no signs of larger surface marine life present, the net still presented potential health risks and our sailors had to be careful handling it." The crew of HMAS Tarakan worked on shifts over a 24-hour period to bring the net onboard. “It started out as a fairly difficult task because there was a lot of net under the sand of the seabed,” LCDR Doolin said. During its time in the sea, the ghost-net had intertwined into a 15-cubic metre radius clump which became obvious as more of the net was brought on deck. “We started trying to cut it back, but it was too big a task, so we had to work out a way to heave it in via the ship’s hydraulics and bow door,” LCDR Doolin said. “Through mechanics and a little physics, we were able to bring it in.” Officers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) and the NT Department of Primary Industry, Fisheries and Mines then removed the net from HMAS Tarakan. Navy’s assistance was greatly appreciated by the Maningrida ranger station, as the net’s presence was killing marine life including sea turtles, and presenting a potential quarantine risk to the region and wider Australia. The ghost-net will be cut up and taken to the Shoal Bay dump near Darwin for deep burial, under the supervision of the Australian Quarantine Inspection Service. More: Imagery |
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| Australian soldier found dead in Timor 7 November - An Australian soldier has died while serving on operations as part of the International Stabilisation Force in East Timor. The Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the soldier was found deceased on Monday afternoon, November 5, in Dili. “The soldier has died of a gun shot wound while in a barracks area. The circumstances of the incident are still uncertain and will be formally investigated. Defence will not be releasing any of the soldier’s personal details or any further information surrounding the circumstances of his death at this time. More: Read media release | Operation ASTUTE |
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Top End turtles rescued on high sea
The crew of HMAS MELVILLE spotted the turtles whilst on duty ‘patrolling the line’ for Operation RESOLUTE, and the recovery of the turtles and the net quickly became a whole-of-ship exercise. Once Petty Officer Bosun Marcus Efferett and his boat crew had successfully released the turtles, it was ‘all hands on deck’ to help haul in the massive net. What at first appeared an easy task soon turned tricky as three quarters of the discarded net was below the waterline. After four hours of careful juggling, the crew finally lifted the soaking, heavy net out of the water using a pulley system and the stores crane. More: Imagery |
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| Media reporting of Armidale Class Patrol Boats 7 November - Recent media reporting of the serviceability of the Armidale Class Patrol Boat (ACPB) fleet focuses on both selective and dated information. This year the fleet has performed consistently in meeting all Government-directed tasking off Northern Australia and in the South West Pacific. Currently, all 13 ACPBs accepted into service by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) are operational. The RAN has been completely open about the repairs undertaken to improve the operability of ACPBs. As with most new designs, teething problems are encountered and have to be overcome. Many of the suggested solutions have been recommended by the crews themselves. Through a determined and concerted effort between the RAN, Defence Materiel Organisation and the support contractor, many of these issues are now well behind the Armidale Class. The allegations raised in media reports have also been addressed and are rebutted in full at the 'Status of Armidale Class Patrol Boats' link below. More: Status of Armidale Class Patrol Boats |
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| Article misleading regards cancelled Land 133 project 6 November - An article in The Australian newspaper today that a cancelled project in 2004 (Land 133) “could have saved Sergeant Michael Lyddiard from the severe injuries he suffered” has been rebutted by the Department of Defence. The article misrepresents the intent of the project and misunderstands the ADF’s comprehensive approach to countering the threat of Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs). Land 133 was a capability technology demonstration focussed on the detection of land mines and route clearance against traditional minefields. It was not intended to be a specific countermeasure against IEDs. Land 133 was replaced by Land 144, which is also focussed on defeating mines and is not intended to deliver specific countermeasures against IEDs. Land 144 achieved 2nd pass approval just before the caretaker period commenced and will mature into an effective counter-mine capability. Other systems are in place and under development to counter IEDs. Land 133 is therefore irrelevant to the incident involving SGT Lyddiard, given that the IED which wounded him had already been discovered and he was in the process of trying to render it safe. Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said there is "no silver bullet" solution against IED threats, but Defence takes a comprehensive approach to countering the IED threat. “Deliberate planning using surveillance and intelligence is also undertaken to ensure our people understand the threat and can adapt to it as it changes. A range of technical and non-technical systems and measures are available to increase the levels of force protection for our deployed troops," Brigadier Nikolic said. In March 2006, the ADF established the Counter IED Task Force in Canberra to coordinate the complex tasks required to mitigate this threat. More: Read media release | IED fact sheet |
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Sergeant Michael Lyddiard in good hands in NATO hospital
SGT Lyddiard was flown to Germany on Sunday, 4 November onboard a specially configured aero-medical flight ahead of his parents and wife also being flown to Germany to be by his side. “The NATO hospital is a world-class facility with some of the most experienced trauma-care specialists in the world,” Defence spokesman Brigadier Andrew Nikolic said. Specialists will continue to assess Sergeant Lyddiard’s condition and further medical management needs. Included in this assessment will be a decision on when it may be possible for Sergeant Lyddiard to return to Australia. SGT Lyddiard was involved in a route clearance task during Operation Spin Ghar (as part of the overall Operation SLIPPER) in Afghanistan, when an improvised explosive device was discovered. He was in the process of attempting to render the device safe when it detonated. No other soldiers were wounded in the incident. More: Read initial media release | Operation SLIPPER |
