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Cooperation on the cards
By Lt Peter Martinelli
Edition 1169, June 28, 2007 |
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Game on: Pte Ray Davis, 3 Bde, AB Cameron Campbell, Sig Graham Broomhall, 3CSR, and Smn Josh Lee play a game on HMAS Manoora.
Photo by AB Jo Dilorenzo |
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IT was the stuff of movies – the snapping of cards and banter of mates sailing toward a dramatic Pacific beach landing.
This was no Hollywood production, but Exercise Talisman Saber 07, where Australian diggers and US Marines are undergoing realistic training in central Queensland.
In the lower decks of amphibious ship USS Juneau, soldiers of A Coy, 2RAR, passed the hours between trips to the gym with hands of cards and other games.
“It’s good fun – playing games keeps morale high,” Pte Mark Tunnicliffe said.
The company went ashore at Freshwater Beach at Shoalwater Bay Training Area on June 20, mounted on US Marine Corps’ Amphibious Armoured Vehicles (AAVs).
Pte Tunnicliffe’s platoon slept in bunks stacked four high and negotiated their way to the mess each mealtime through a maze of bulkheads, passageways, steep metal stairways and humid corners packed with plumbing, generators and lockers.
In the mess, the diggers mingled with American sailors and Marines.
“They were a lot different than how I thought they’d be,” said Pte Kyle Gavin. “I thought they’d be loud, but they’re a lot like us.”
Over meals and on the flight deck, marines, sailors and Australian soldiers swapped tall tales and learned a bit more about each other.
But games and camaraderie aside, the soldiers of A Coy were keen to hit the beach.
“We just want to get out and operate with the AAVs, to see how they work and see how it all fits together,” Pte Brent Ryan said.
Pte Ryan and his mates depended on close cooperation with the US Navy and Marines to deliver them ashore safely.
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