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AFG welcome Prime Minister of Mongolia
CANBERRA woke to the sound of a 19-gun salute from Australia’s Federation Guard (AFG) when the President of Mongolia, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, was welcomed to Parliament House on February 23.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was also present for the parade as six Vietnam War era M2A2 Howitzers were used for the salute.
OPSO AFG LT Luke Haitas was the Gun Position Officer for the parade and said the AFG gun-battery trained quite regularly and conducted salutes once or twice a month.
“The crews get a big kick out of firing the guns -- we have done a lot of training to be qualified on this equipment and we constantly do refresher training prior to and post-parade,” LT Haitas said.
“One of the main challenges of a gun-salute is the amount of time the gun-parties have to spend in a very uncomfortable position while waiting to fire the guns.
A 19-Gun salute is reserved for heads-of-state and each round is fired one at a time. The custom originates in naval tradition, where a warship would fire its cannons harmlessly out to sea, until all ammunition was spent to show that it was disarmed -- signifying the lack of hostile intent.
LCPL Edward Hodge was a gun-number for the parade and joined the AFG in 2009 when he transferred from 5RAR.
When asked how he felt about coming from an infantry background and firing an artillery field-gun LCPL Hodge said it was good to get a feel of what some of the other corps do.
“The AFG is a great posting and we get to travel all over Australia as well as overseas,” LCPL Hodge said.
“Highlights for me have been when I commanded the catafalque party at the Australian War Memorial last Anzac Day and being involved in the funerals for the last Australian soldiers found at Fromelles.
“The biggest challenge in joining the AFG was learning the drill to get up to the standard required for the Precision Drill Team – it can take two to three weeks of hard work.”
