Artillerymen deploy to the Solomons
Volume 11, No. 46, June 29, 2006

See you later: LBdr Matt Kyle Lance says goodbye to his partner Angela McKey at Darwin airport.

THEY were originally training to go to Malaysia, but 103 soldiers from 101 Mdm Bty, 8/12 Mdm Regt, now find themselves in the Solomon Islands.

The soldiers deployed from Darwin as part of Operation Anode on June 17.

Comd 1 Div Maj-Gen Ash Power, who farewelled the soldiers, said many of them were serving on their first overseas deployment but were well equipped for the peacekeeping operation.

“This type of thing is becoming a bit more common with the Army able to do a whole range of things from humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, this peace keeping type of operation, right through to war fighting,” Maj-Gen Power said.

“This group was actually preparing to go to Butterworth (RCB) in Malaysia as a rifle company and the training they’d completed for that deployment had them well positioned to participate in Op Anode. We were able to switch their tasking at very short notice.”

He said the deployment to the Solomons was in a rifle company structure based around the 101 Mdm Bty with other 1 Bde units contributing personnel.

1CER was able to react quickly to pick up the RCB task. “All of these movements are good examples of 1 Bde’s readiness,” Maj-Gen Power said.