Deliverance from above
Trusted Huey workhorses bring mercy to devastated Acehenese

Relief: An A Sqn 5 Avn Regt Heuy over Aceh. Photo by Cpl Cameron Jamieson, Army newspaper.

Committed: Troop Commander Capt Adam Zahra found himself flying aid missions in Aceh within days of being recalled from Christmas leave. Photo by Cpl Cameron Jamieson, Army newspaper.

Land lost: Tsunami-devastated coastline. Photo by Maj Grant King, 1JPAU

By Cpl Cameron Jamieson

ON THE west coast of Aceh the Boxing Day tsunami has cut the main road in many places.

At one point there is a mammoth ocean-going barge and its attending tug sitting astride the road, dumped there by the force of the angry waves that demolished the coastline.

In another part a multi-span road bridge now empties into the sea – the land that was on the other side simply no longer exists.

The situation called for helicopters – lots of them – to move aid to the isolated survivors along the coast, and it was into this nightmare of destruction that the Iroquois crews from A Sqn 5 Avn Regt have flown.

OC A Sqn Maj James Brown explained that the four UH-1H “Huey” Iroquois helicopters under his command were selected for the mission because their characteristics best suited the immediate circumstances.

“There was a heavy option of sending Chinooks, there was the option of sending Black Hawks, but the Huey was certainly going to be the quickest off the mark to deploy because of their size and ease of transport, and we were very concerned about the risk to the survivors from the down-wash of the rotors.

“The footprint in terms of the down-wash from the Huey is much less than a Black Hawk or a Chinook, so it was decided to send the Hueys.” When the order came to deploy, the soldiers of A Squadron moved like wildfire.

Recalled on New Years Eve, they reported to work the next day and departed with three Iroquois helicopters the following morning on a chartered Antonov transport aircraft.

Arriving at Medan in the province of Northern Sumatra, the helicopters were soon prepared for the epic 500km fiight to Banda Aceh.

A fourth aircraft soon followed, and the 40 A Sqn personnel found themselves in the thick of the disaster relief effort.

Capt Adam Zahra, a pilot from the squadron who has been . ying aid missions constantly since he arrived in Banda Aceh, was unprepared for the reality of what he first saw.

“It was pretty horrendous when we first got here – you’d see large areas that looked like mud flats but you’d notice a mosque in the middle of it, and you knew a whole town had been there but now it’s gone.

“We were bringing back a lot of aeromedical evacuations, but that has tapered off, and what we are seeing now is an influx of internally displaced people, and we’re bringing them back from the different landing zones.”

Capt Dave Marko, currently working as the squadron operations officer, said the tempo at the start was quite high because of the volume of initial aid that needed to be moved, but this had since slowed to a sustainment rate.

“When we started we were flying with two aircraft per day each doing around eight hours of flying, but that has now dropped to about six hours per day.

“We are continuing to provide food, water, medicine, relief stores and personnel out to the maximum radius of the aircraft – around 90 miles.

“We are working hand-in-hand with the Indonesians, keeping in line with their priorities and what they determine are their biggest needs.

“We understand that it is their country and that the whole strategy for the operation is their responsibility. “We are happy to work in with them in any way they see fit.”

Loadmaster Cpl David Meehan is a father of three boys and it means a lot to him to see the aid getting through to the Indonesian children.

He often sees the happiness in the faces of the children when the Heuys drop by with aid.

“I saw one little kid the other day at Lhoong, he was about three years old and was standing there with his brother,” he said.

“He was waving the whole time we were sitting on the ground as we waited for another patient to be brought out.

“So I walked out to shake his hand he was a bit taken aback at first until he realised what I was doing.

“I shook his hand and rubbed his head, and he was like the king of the . ies for a bit – all the other kids were excited that he had got to meet one of us.”

Maj Brown is also pleased with the work of the Australian aviators.

“The guys believe in the job they are doing, and they are doing a very good job,” he said.

“The contribution we are making with our four aircraft is not large compared to the 25 aircraft of the US Navy, or the Mi-8 helicopters that carry three times as much as we do per lift.”