By Pte John Wellfare

PARATROOPERS put their training on reverse-cycle recently with a week of night-exercises at the Holsworthy military area in Sydney.

Starting work at 4pm and finishing at midnight, soldiers from C Coy 3RAR donned NINOX and took to the nearby training area to practice section and platoon operations by night.

Section Commander 3 Sect, 7 Pl, Cpl Chris Lakey, said the training was aimed at revising soldiers in the equipment and requirements for working at night.

“We’re mainly working on getting used to the night-fighting equipment, night patrolling, section attack at night, ambushing – all the basics but by night,” he said.

The C Coy soldiers began the return to conventional infantry training with a two week jungle-warfare exercise at JTC.
While Tully provided the paratroopers with a perfect environment to practice section and platoon operations by day, the lack of ambient light after dark in a jungle setting makes working by night very difficult, even with advanced night-vision equipment.

As well as standard infantry operations, the week of night training involved an intense physical schedule, with running in webbing, swimming and a pack-march added to the night-fighting theme.

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