Team commended for its Iraqi service

By LCDR Paul Papalia

CAPT Stephen McDowall, centre, with members of AUSCDT FOUR. Photo ABPH Philip Cullinan

On August 6, the men of Australian Clearance Diving Team Four (AUSCDT FOUR) were comm­ended by the Commander of the Australian Mine warfare and Clearance Diving Group, CAPT Stephen McDowall.

CAPT McDowall travelled to Western Australia for briefings and to present Australian Active Service Medals to men from the Team who had served in Iraq as part of AUSCDT THREE.

AUSCDT THREE is a composite team formed from the two standing Clearance Diving Teams in time of conflict and other great need.

The team was first formed for duties in Vietnam, then during the initial stages of Clearance Diving support to the SASR Counter Terrorist Squadron, and again during the 1991 Gulf War.

The latest AUSCDT THREE was the biggest such team ever deployed, with a total of 32 personnel including a Logistics Officer, Storeman, Medic, Comm­unicator and POB.

Most of the team deployed to the United States on exercise in early January, returned to Australia briefly for training and equipment issue and then deployed to the MEAO for the first half of 2003.

The team staged into Kuwait for almost a month of preparation and training. As war approached, it moved into a tactical assembly area in the Northern Kuwaiti desert. Then in March it drove in convoy across the Iraqi border and commenced operations during the early days of the war.

AUSCDT THREE remained in Iraq for almost two months during which time it accumulated an impressive resume of achievements.

In Northern Kuwait and Southern Iraq it endured over 30 missile alerts and spent seven days in chemical protective clothing.

MCM diving resulted in a total searched area of 2,550,000 square metres with the team being the only unit to locate mines in an Iraqi port. Four mines were destroyed, along with dozens of other seamines recovered on land.

Another 20 unknown contacts were countermined in harbours as the team responded to USN unm­anned vehicle or marine mammal searches.

On land the team was even busier. Thirty four tactical EOD patrols were completed covering 2100 kilometres. These patrols cleared unexploded ordnance from 135 square kilometres of Iraqi territory.

Over 4000 items of ordnance were located and destroyed in addition to hundreds of thousands of small arms rounds.

Being the only Navy unit, and one of only three ADF units based on Iraqi soil during the combat phase of Operation Falconer, the team also made a significant contribution to intelligence acquisition by locating and recovering a range of items and material of interest to Australian and coalition agencies.

After the presentations, the CO AUSCDT FOUR, LCDR Scott Craig (who also commanded AUSCDT THREE), pres­ented CAPT McDowall with an Iraqi closed circuit breathing app­aratus recovered by the team from the Basra Naval base.

The Iraqi dive set is inscribed with the names of those who served in AUSCDT THREE in Iraq and will be displayed at the Group Headquarters at HMAS Waterhen.

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