By Cpl Jonathan Garland
LATE on October 12, Bali was shaken by a series of bomb blasts, causing widespread death and destruction to tourists and locals at the Sari nightclub.

Australia bore the brunt of the casualties, with about 150 dead or injured and some further 140 missing in the aftermath.

Support to the Bali explosion victims from the ADF was immediate, with medical staff despatched by Hercules on Operation Bali Assist within hours.

During the next few days, five Hercules and associated AME teams were deployed to Bali to treat and evacuate Australians injured in the blasts.

These aircraft transported urgently needed medical stores to Darwin and flew six sorties from Denpasar in Bali during the operation, airlifting 66 casualties.

All known serious casualties were evacuated from Bali by October 15 and the majority were moved to southern states.

The ADF provided five medical teams, totalling 41 medical personnel, to assist in patient treatment and care, prioritisation and coordinating transfer of casualties to Darwin.

These teams consisted of about seven specialists – in total, 13 doctors (including anaesthetists and intensive care specialists), 16 critical care nurses and 12 medical assistants – full and part-time ADF members from around Australia who were quick to respond when called.

The first Hercules into Bali carried 10 medical personnel, including two doctors, who performed triage, stabilised patients and loaded them onto aircraft for transport to Darwin.

After the initial lift, an ADF doctor and nurse remained in Bali to assess and treat patients, ready for the next AME aircraft.

Turn around time for the aircraft during an AME lift was about 90mins, flight time between Bali and Darwin was about 3hr 15mins and the maximum number of patients per aircraft was about 22.

The first Hercules to return to Darwin carried 15 evacuees – three in intensive care, five on stretchers and seven walking.

Despite the efforts of the AME team, one evacuee died on board the aircraft from abdominal wounds suffered in the blast.

The second aircraft carried 22 evacuees - two in intensive care, 19 on stretchers and one walking.

Other ADF support included flying two ambulances to Bali, where they were used to ferry casualties from hospitals to the Denpasar airport for loading onto aircraft.

Six storage refrigerators, plus support equipment and two ADF operators, were also flown into Bali to preserve the bodies of victims.

Two chaplains, one Air Force and one Army, were initially deployed to Bali to provide pastoral care for the victims of the bombing. Two more arrived on October 16.

Three ADF Indonesian linguists were also deployed to Bali on October 16 to provide liaison and interpreter support to DFAT, AFP and local authorities.

Defence staff from the Consular Mission, working around the clock, assisted DFAT and other agencies on the ground.

The whereabouts and wellbeing of all ADF personnel in Bali has been established.

Two soldiers were injured, one seriously and one slightly, and no ADF personnel were killed in the blast.

Director-General Military Public Affairs Brig Mike Hannan said the ADF would not be involved in returning bodies to Australia.

“That will be undertaken by other agencies that are better equipped for that task, able to do it in fewer lifts and more directly to the places where they would be processed in Australia,” he said.

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