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Recovery team on a roll
By Cpl Corinne Boer
Edition 1174, September 6, 2007 |
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| Smashing: Vehicle recovery specialists WO2 Brian Dawes and Cpl Scott Maslan look over a damaged Unimog vehicle that rolled during a mission to the eastern districts of Timor-Leste. Photo by LS Kade Rogers |
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WHEN soldiers from the Anzac Battle Group Workshop in Timor-Leste recovered a Unimog involved in an accident 35km south-west of Dili they demonstrated their all-round capability.
The workshop team – drawn from elements of 1RAR, 3CSSB, 1 Fd Regt, 7CSSB and 4 Fd Regt – supports more than 200 vehicles on operations in Timor-Leste. These vehicles include Land Rovers, 6x6 Dual Cabs, Merlos, Unimogs and Mac trucks and cranes.
The Battle Group Workshop’s ASM, WO2 Brian Dawes, said the terrain surrounding Dili was hard on the vehicles and kept the workshop busy.
“Outside of Dili we send six people on a recovery task in two vehicles, and two of those people need to be recovery mechanics,” WO2 Dawes said.
“Our guys were recently involved in a recovery of a Unimog which rolled over. They were out there for four days.”
The incident on July 27 resulted in six members of the ADF and a civilian interpreter being injured. The vehicle was part of a convoy and was being guided past an obstacle when the road collapsed.
Cpl Scott Maslin helped recover the Unimog, which had ended up on its roof.
“The location was about six hours drive from Dili and the roads there were quite difficult and not really designed for a 14-tonne recovery vehicle,” he said.
He said it was slow going for most of the trip and actually recovering the Unimog was “the easiest part of the job”. |
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