3RAR paratroopers descend into Kapyong DZ at Shoalwater Bay from RAAF C130Js as part of Exercise Croc 03. Photo by Cpl Ashley Roach, 1JPAU(P)

Paras jump in early

By Pte John Wellfare
PARATROOPERS from 3RAR and A Fd Bty inserted into Legais in the first days of Croc 03 as part of a joint offensive to secure key points of entry throughout the theatre of operations.

Parachuting into Kapyong DZ at dawn, the Parachute Battalion Group (PBG) set about consolidating their position before moving on to capture objectives.

CO 3RAR, Lt-Col Quentin Flowers, said the PBG's contribution was vital to the success of friendly forces on the exercise.

"We're a key part of the Australian Army's ability to seize terrain and the PBG is one of the most flexible elements the Army has," he said.

"Parachuting is a big challenge for every individual, but it's only a means of getting to the fight.

"From here we've got a lot of ground to cover, we've got some objectives to capture, some pieces of ground and we've got some enemy to fight. We're looking forward to it."

Lt-Col Flowers said the stress of parachute operations required the soldiers of the PBG to be both physically and mentally fit.

"We've got very experienced dispatchers in the aircraft who look after every aspect of our getting rigged and getting prepared in the aircraft.

"There's a lot of tension in the air but we manage it pretty well most of the time.

"Many of these blokes wouldn't have had much sleep for a couple of nights [before the insertion], not just because they've been physically getting ready, preparing gear and so on, but also because of nerves and tension."

Maintaining the Army's war fighting capability was a key objective of Croc 03 and the paratroopers of the PBG, recently returned from peacekeeping duties in East Timor, were keen to return to combat operations.

"This scenario might have [little] relevance to the real world right now, but we're training at a high end of capability.

"We've found through peace keeping, that by training at a high level and training seriously, we can actually scale down to peace keeping very effectively and that's what we're all about on this exercise."

After parachuting onto DZ Kapyong, Australian paratroopers captured Williamson Airfield, a key air point of entry, allowing for the insertion of large numbers of friendly forces into Legais.

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