MEMBERS of the ADF can look forward to receiving increased service quality around their messes, canteens and workplaces.

The re-tendering of Defence contracts for regional Garrison Support Services (GSS) and Comprehensive Maintenance Services (CMC) was completed recently.

In many instances sub-contractors and contractor staff will be employed from within local areas, offering employment opportunities to members of those communities, including ADF spouses.

The companies will be invited to compete over the next three to four years for regional Defence contracts worth about $480 million annually.

GSS services include catering, cleaning and waste removal, grounds maintenance, access control, and other domestic services and base logistics services.

IN a first for Army and Air Force, the Mechanical Equipment Operations and Maintenance Section of 382 Expeditionary Combat Support Squadron (ECSS) became an Accredited Maintenance Organisation recently.

Army's Technical Regulatory Framework (TRF) is the basis of the accreditation.

TRF contributes to ADF capabilities by ensuring a high degree of technical integrity for land materiel.

OPERATORS and maintainers of Defence equipment will find it easier to get information relevant to their trades with the introduction of an online service.

Electrical Mechanical Engineering Instructions (EMEI), Repair Parts Scales (RPS), and Complete Equipment Schedules (CES) are now available online for Defence customers.

The Technical Data Centre within the Land Engineering Agency (LEA) is providing the service in line with the Technical Data Management Capability (TDMC), a move towards electronic technical publications.

The technical publications are available as Portable Document Format (PDF) files, which are opened using Acrobat Reader, from the LEA intranet site.

Links to government and non-government specifications and standards are also available from this web site.

Website staff said the indexes would open quickly but downloading the larger documents may take considerable time.

The new service is an interim solution, until a fully integrated technical data management capability is rolled out under the TDMC project.

The project is scheduled to introduce a partial capability for operational and high-priority land material technical data by mid 2004, with a full capability by end of 2006.

• The new TDC website is leaweb.lsd.defence.gov.au/techdata

ADVENTUROUS Training leaders, commanders, and planners are now be able to access the Adventurous Training instruction online following its inclusion in the Army Doctrine Electronic Library.

Land Warfare Doctrine (LWD) 7-6 Adventurous Training consolidates the generic principles required to understand, design, plan and conduct an adventurous activity.

It also provides instruction on emphasising the use of adventurous training as a learning aid in developing qualities such as courage, teamwork, confidence, trust and leadership.

An online version of LWD-G 7-6-1 Planning and Preparation is currently under construction and on completion will provide guidance to Unit Adventurous Training Leaders (UATLs) on understanding weather, conducting emergency responses, search and rescue, risk management and safety.

Other doctrine in production includes information on specific disciplines such as roping, caving, whitewater rafting and kayaking.

• For further details visit http://adel.defence.gov.au8087/index.html

KOREAN War veterans are once again being asked for their assistance.

The Australian War Memorial is seeking to identify photographs taken of Australian servicemen during the war and is asking for veterans and their families to visit its website, which provides a return email form with each photo.

The War Memorial's Senior Curator-Photo Film and Sound, Nola Anderson, said restoring and preserving the negatives that were damaged during their return home to Australia in sandbags, with most labels either destroyed, damaged or missing, had been a large, long term project.

Of the 17,000 Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen who deployed to what is often referred to as the 'forgotten war', 339 were killed, 1216 were wounded and 29 were subjected to treatment as POWs.

The photographs can be viewed at www.awm.gov.au/press/korea

FURTHER health screening is required for personnel returning from Op Slipper, Palate, Bastille, Falconer and Catalyst in the Middle East and Op Anode in the Solomon Islands.

According to the Defence Health Service, the screening is a result of environmental threat assessments that deployed personnel may have been exposed to toxic, environmental and industrial hazards and diseases endemic in those AOs.

Screening of this type is a routine procedure under the ADF's Duty of Care obligations to its members.

Members returning from the Middle East will complete a screening questionnaire and receive a medical information card. A physical examination will be necessary should the questionnaire identify any problems.

At the same time the member will be offered screening for possible exposure to depleted uranium.

Members returning from Op Anode will complete a different questionnaire and will also be provided a medical information card.

This will ensure that accurate records of all relevant health issues are maintained for each member as well as a comprehensive record of potential health exposures.

• For further information visit the DHSB website http://defweb2.cbr.defence.gov.au/dpedhs/infocentre/default.htm

PREVENTING injuries among ADF personnel will be the focus of a new study announced recently by the- then Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, Danna Vale.

The study, costing $2.5 million, will be conducted by a consortium led by the University of Ballarat and will examine the ergonomic, human performance and physical capacity requirements of the Army's infantry and the Air Force's Airfield Defence Guards.

Minister Vale said heavy physical demands were placed on all Defence personnel, but particularly those employed in combat areas.

She said the study would not consider whether or not direct combat roles should be open to women, as it was limited to identifying the physical standards required of personnel to do their job.

The research team will use that data to develop Physical Employment Standards, which will inform decisions on employment category selection, training and injury prevention and will help manage occupational health and safety.

The Physical Employment Standards study is expected to take two years to complete. The consortium also includes researchers from Victoria University, the University of NSW, Monash University and the University of Sydney.

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