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Wave of aid
By Cpl Mike McSweeney

Edition 1164, April 19, 2007
 
Devastation: Scenes such as this debris-strewn village have confronted soldiers assisting with the humanitarian relief efforts in the Solomon Islands.
ARMY and Air Force medical teams are providing support to the international relief effort following the tsunami which devastated parts of the Solomon Islands.

Eight CTF 635 personnel including two medics were sent to Gizo two days after the tsunami to provide an initial response. Two ADF Primary Health Care Teams with attached preventative and environmental health specialists flew into the country on a C-130 four days after villages in the Western Province were devastated on April 2.

RAMSI personnel and assets, including Australian and New Zealand soldiers of CTF635, and members of the Participating Police Force have also provided support to the relief efforts.

CO CTF635 Lt-Col Peter Connor, who took command of the task force after the tsunami, said 30 additional soldiers had been sent to the Western Province to support the medical teams.

“They’re providing force protection, communications and general support,” Lt-Col Connor said. “They’re also working with the various aid agencies including AusAid to support the people of the Solomon Islands.”

The medical soldiers, drawn from 1 and 2HSB, and their RAAF counterparts from 2 ATHS are based at Gizo and Sasamungga on the island of Choiseul respectively.

“The team at Gizo has had access to mobility assets and have conducted 11 remote tasks out to various other communities,” Lt-Col Connor said.

“They have been in two- or three-person teams, and they have been providing critical medical supplies, assessing capability in the pre-existing health clinics, providing medical and environmental health services and general assessments of displaced persons.” Their emphasis has been on establishing the local health infrastructure.

He said the medical teams, task force soldiers and C-130 flights were ADF’s contribution to a whole-of-government response to the crisis.

He said a number of aid agencies were involved with the relief effort, and several nations had made contributions.

“USNS Stockham has entered Solomon Islands waters to provide helo support and French, PNG, New Zealand and Australian aircraft have been flying in stores,” he said.

He said the Solomon Island Police Force and the international Participating Police Force had provided air and sea assets to transport personnel and supplies.

With scores of Solomon Islanders dead and thousands displaced, it has been a busy time for the new rotation of CTF 635.

“Those soldiers who deployed forward [to the Western Province] have acquitted themselves very well. There are a couple of signallers who have been given great responsibility and have taken that challenge and have worked very well,” said Maj Jocelyn King, OIC of the Army PHCT.

Lt-Col Connor said morale was high among the soldiers and they had really applied themselves since they arrived. “It’s a very good start to our rotation,” he said.