Above and below: Soldiers from 5/7RAR in a scenario from Exercise Timor Prelude, with members of OPFOR playing the roll of locals in Batchelor. Photos by Sgt Mark Dowling 1JPAU(P)

By Lt Gabrielle Turnbull
IN ORDER to prepare the battalion for its deployment, the soldiers have participated in a series of three exercises – Timor Dawn, Timor Prelude and Timor Dusk.

Exercises Timor Dawn and Prelude have been developed by the Australian Army’s Combat Training Centre (CTC) and are designed to exercise 5/7RAR as the AUSBATT.

They were developed to practice the battalion in command and control, operating in a foreign environment, liaison with external agencies, and dealing with local civilians.

Exercise Timor Dawn, aided by CTC Battle Command at the Mt Bundy training area in July, was a command post exercise to practice the command and staff procedures involving incidents in their area of operations.

The scenario had the battalion group deployed to East Timor conducting peace support operations as part of UNMISET.

Exercise Timor Prelude, aided by CTC (Live) in August, gave soldiers the opportunity to practice and evaluate their ability to conduct specific peace keeping missions through a series of scenario-based training exercises.

The Australian soldiers occupied the small tourist town of Batchelor in the Northern Territory for a month, patrolling local streets and participating in operational activities in the town centre and surrounding areas. CO, CTC Lt-Col Stephen Tulley said the exercise was an overwhelming success.

“We had all four companies complete the second series of training in Batchelor and the local community was extremely helpful and accommodating to all the soldiers,” he said.

“Batchelor is a great town and we are really pleased to see such tremendous support for the Australian Army.”

Batchelor was selected as the training ground for Timor Prelude because of its proximity to Darwin, 5/7RAR’s base.

Batchelor’s size, weather and surrounding bushland are also similar to the conditions in East Timor border towns.

A Coy was the fourth and final company to experience a rotation through the CTC Live training in Batchelor. OC, Maj Mick Sasse said the scenario-based training was invaluable in giving the unit an understanding of how to deal with similar incidents in East Timor.

“Live exposure to situations the soldiers might encounter in East Timor is integral in preparing them for situations on the ground,” he said.

“The soldiers have undergone a variety of preparation and training exercises are now being applied to a range of scenarios to challenge their immediate response reactions in the serious issues that arise.

“The experience-based learning approach is extremely effective.”

The unit will complete the final training exercise, Timor Dusk, conducted by HQ 1Bde, before the soldiers deploy.

Timor Dusk will involve a series of exercises conducted at Mt Bundy Training Area to test and evaluate the battalion in peace support operations.

5/7RAR will be the seventh battalion of Australian soldiers deployed to East Timor in a peacekeeping role.

The battalion will deploy late this year and return to Australia by early to mid-2003.

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