By Pte John Wellfare
PLANNING for an exercise as large as Croc 03 tends to focus closely on the tactical deployment of thousands of soldiers and items of equipment into the exercise area, but often neglects the equally important issue of getting everybody home.

When soldiers needed to leave the area, their movement was arranged and organised through the Joint Movements Control Office (JMCO), established at Williamson Airfield on the day it was opened to air traffic for Croc 03.

Sgt Angela Moodie said the JMCO was not responsible for tactical moves - which were handled by the various brigade headquarters elements - but was tasked with arranging administration moves for anything from an individual soldier to entire units at a time.

"We grab hold of a list of exactly what a unit has, what they're going to move, how they're going to move and we summarise them," she said.

"Basically I just do the summary containing all the necessary information and I send it off to the JMCC headquarters, which is in Rockhampton.

"JMCC then tell the units exactly how they're going to move, when they're going to move and where they're going to be staying, if they're going by road, what flight they're going to be on if they're going by air."

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