During a replenishment at sea with USNS Tippecanoe, personnel from HMAS Kanimbla bring in the stores from the flight deck.

Photo: LSPH Bill Louys

By CPL Cameron Jamieson

New Year’s Eve should be a time of rejoicing.

For the families of the crew of HMAS Kanimbla it was a mixture of sadness and pride.

Sadness, because the ship had been pressed into operational service at short notice, but there was also pride in the fact that the ship’s company would be playing a part in bringing aid and hope to the earthquake and tsunami-ravaged regions of Aceh in Indonesia.

HMAS Kanimbla’s then CO, CMDR Steve Woodall (who handed over command of the ship to CMDR George McGuire on January 30), was pleased with how quickly the ship swung into action.

“I think it came together really well,” he said.

“We sailed within 48 hours of being told to sail from Sydney.

“We then had 26 hours in Darwin, during which time we loaded 1CER’s personnel, their vehicles and equipment, picked up the remainder of the Primary Casualty Reception Facility, fuelled the ship and got all the food onboard.

“We then integrated the embarked units on the passage up to Sumatra and when we got here we hit the ground running.”

The first challenge on arrival off Banda Aceh was to get the Army engineers and their earth-moving equipment ashore.

The tsunami had destroyed the shoreline and port facilities, making it nearly impossible to find to a beach landing site for the embarked Army LCM8s.

But the persistence of the Navy hydrographers and the Army amphibious beach team paid off.

A site was found and the crew got busy. “Initially we were very busy as we focused on getting 1CER and their equipment ashore,” CMDR Woodall said.

Since then the tempo has reduced to a steady pace.

“We need to spend some time underway each day to make fresh water, and we’re continuing to provide support to the forces ashore –150 hotbox meals go ashore each day, we provide laundry facilities for personnel on the ground, and we are bringing up to 30 people each day onboard for a 36-hour respite so they can shower, relax and unwind.

“We are also flying the two Sea King helicopters for some humanitarian missions, and they remain on standby for AME missions.

“And we retain the surgical capability of the medical facility should we need it.”

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