Ceremony notes Kiwi contribution

SGT Mick Warner and FSGT John de Haan at the Gunfire Breakfast.

THE sound of a wet season thunderstorm gave way to the cries of the traditional Kiwi Haka at RAAF Base Darwin recently as it hosted a ceremony recognising the end of New Zealand support to INTERFET, UNTAET and UNMISET in East Timor.

Australian Air Force personnel, more than 60 New Zealand Defence Force troops and VIPs, including the New Zealand Defence Minister Mark Burton and the New Zealand Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Bruce Ferguson, descended on Darwin for the parade and hosting ceremony consisting of a traditional Gunfire Breakfast.

Australian Chief of Defence Force General Peter Cosgrove and Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence Danna Vale were greeted on arrival by hot, humid conditions courtesy of a typical November storm, which fortunately cleared in time for the formalities to begin.

A Meritorious Unit Citation was presented to the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s No. 3 Squadron for their work in East Timor.

Mrs Vale, who addressed the Parade, thanked the New Zealanders for their remarkable three-year contribution to peacekeeping efforts.

“Indeed more than half of the New Zealand Defence Force has served in east Timor on a rotational basis during this campaign, a fact the East Timorese people will never forget,” she said.

Ceremony host GEN Cosgrove spoke of the fond memories he had of welcoming the first New Zealand contingent to East Timor in 1999.

He said he would never forget the Haka that members of the New Zealand Defence Force performed when they first arrived in Dili.

GEN Cosgrove congratulated 3SQN on the Unit Citation, explaining that a new nation had been built on the foundations the Kiwis helped to create.

 

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