Unit citation for 1 Sqn SASR bravery

THE dedication and skills of Australia’s Special Forces have been officially recognised as soldiers from the SASR who served in Iraq, were presented with a Unit Citation for Gallantry award by the Governor-General, Michael Jeffery.

The parade was held at Campbell Barracks, Swanbourne, to formally recognise the achievements of 1 Sqn, SASR, in Western Iraq during Operation Falconer.

The award recognised that the gallant actions of SASR soldiers in Iraq directly contributed to the success of Coalition operations.

A streamer was added to the Australian Army banner recognising the Unit Citation for Gallantry.

Streamers recognising the awarding of 3 Sqn SASR’s Meritorious Unit Citation for service in East Timor in 1999 and an SASR Meritorious Unit Citation for operations in Afghanistan in 2002 were also attached to the banner.

In his address to the parade, the Governor-General said that in 2004, the SASR soldier continued to demonstrate the personal and professional qualities that have made the regiment so successful and so highly regarded worldwide.

“Just some of these personal traits include high intelligence, initiative to a marked degree, physical and moral courage, superb fitness, personal, individual discipline and composure under pressure,” he said.

“Today’s citations are the culmination of decades of imaginative training, superb leadership at all levels and sustained performance by troopers, NCOs and officers.

“But the citations are also an implicit recognition of those who supported the three operations from behind the front line and those who in earlier years helped develop the spirit, initiative and camaraderie that is the SASR today,” he said.

The Governor-General, who is Commander-in-Chief of the ADF, a former CO SASR and currently the Honorary Colonel of SASR, acknowledged the soldiers personified the “special” in Special Air Service.

“This regiment is special in every meaning of the word,” he said.