A Kiowa lands after the last AAAvn mission in East Timor. The three Kiowas based at Suai completed nearly 11,000 hours of accident-free flying in East Timor. Photo by Cpl Sean Burton, Army newspaper

Recce finished

By Capt Sarah Hawke
Nearly four years after arriving in East Timor it was hard to imagine that children would still come racing out to wave, but that’s exactly what happened as the Australian Army Aviation element carried out one of its last flights over the young nation.

On June 30, with almost 11,000 hours in the air, the Kiowas and support personnel completed service in East Timor.

East Timor was the first operational deployment for the Kiowas in 26 years, or since 161 Recce Sqn flew its last missions during Vietnam.

When the Townsville-based 162 Recce Sqn first arrived in Dili with four aircraft and 26 personnel on September 21, 1999, there was no waving from locals in a city virtually deserted after the population fled to the hills following the violence surrounding the independence vote.

The squadron’s tasking in the early days of INTERFET was in direct support of HQ 3 Bde.

When 162 moved by sea to Suai in the south-east in October 1999, much of the tasking focused along what was known as the Tactical Coordination Line (TCL) separating East and West Timor. In the initial stages, 162 activities accounted for 85 per cent of all information gathered in that area.

Just like Dili, there were few local people and many of Suai’s buildings had been burnt out. Flights also had an element of risk; in the early months the unarmed Kiowas were fired upon a number of times from unseen elements, particularly along the TCL.

In December 1999, Darwin-based 161 Recce Sqn took over. From that time until the last flight in June 2003, the two squadrons rotated and continued to provide aerial reconnaissance support to UNTAET and then UNMISET.

Now back in Australia, the squadrons will focus on training for the introduction of the new armed reconnaissance helicopters – the ARH Tiger that arrives in 2005.

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