BELOW: The coffins of three deceased Australian citizens, killed in the attack, awaiting return to Australia. Photos provided by Lt-Col Stephen Curry

Dealing with chaos and panic

AUSTRALIAN Army Attache to Jakarta Col Neil Thompson received a call from the embassy late on Saturday night and, with his assistant WO2 Bryson Keenan, left for Bali on the first available morning flight.

After briefing at the consulate, they then visited hospitals to check for Australian casualties and to get an idea of how many people had been caught in the blast.

“We were dropped at the morgue at Sanglah hospital and saw how gruesome and horrible that was – bodies were still out in the open while they tried to establish some sort of registration and documentation,” he said.

“We went in to the main hospital into what I can only describe as chaos and pandemonium.

There were a significant number of injured people spread throughout the hospital, including Australians.”

They sought out Australians who had come in to assist, and found three doctors and two young Army officers working with the victims.

“Lts Trent and Emily Mongan gave me a run down of the situation at the hospital – where people were and about how many Australians were involved.

“The doctors explained the gravity of the situation, in that if quite a few of these people didn’t get evacuated to better-care facilities they would likely die.”

Col Thompson decided to centralise the Australian patients into one ward, so that their treatment could be coordinated and the evacuation managed from a single point.

At the same time, he was on the telephone to AST and Air HQ coordinating aerial evacuation support and AME teams.

Col Thompson said the expatriate and Indonesian community were full of praise for the ADF for their actions following the bomb blasts.

“They couldn’t speak highly enough of how quickly the ADF reacted to the situation and were very impressed by the fact we could evacuate all seriously injured people in about 36 hours.”

“I can’t speak highly enough of the role Lts Trent and Emily Mongan played in providing support to patients and assisting me in the evacuation effort.”

“Trent has pretty high patrol medic-type qualifications, which he used very effectively, and Emily organised volunteers, recognised priorities and acted accordingly – they were just fantastic.”

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