This Capp is fit for
a number of roles

Air Commodore Roger Capps and Roulette pilot Flight Lieutenant Glen Hanly trackside at the V8 car race. Photo By LAC Jeremy Patten

By Deanna Nott

SPECIALIST Reserve Air Commodore Roger Capps is known to wear many caps.

In his civilian life he works as a senior anaesthetist consultant at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. In his Reserve life he constantly volunteers for deployments and aeromedical evacuation operations.

And most recently, AIRCDRE Capps, the Air Force’s Assistant Surgeon General, offered his expert services as a member of the Clipsal 500 Race Medical Team. During the event, sponsored by the ADF, he treated drivers, marshals and race personnel for minor injuries.

Owing to a special interest in burns surgery and anaesthesia, AIRCDRE Capps played a crucial role in Operation Bali Assist, working alongside the first Australian Burns Assessment Team to be dispatched as part of the emergency response to the Bali terrorist attacks last October.

He treated patients as they arrived in Darwin aboard C130 Hercules aircraft.

“The Bali tragedy highlighted the essential role of the Australian Defence Force in retrieval, triage and emergency management in a disaster situation,” he said.

“The survivors of this disaster would have been much smaller in number but for the ADF’s prompt, expert attention, meticulous but immediate planning and confident rescue.”

The list of his other military achievements is extensive. He deployed as a member of the RAAF Medical Team accompanying Gallipoli Veterans back to Gallipoli in April 1990 and as the Air Force Officer in Charge of the aeromedical component of a similar 75th anniversary pilgrimage mission to the Western Front in 1993.

Another highlight was being selected as the Senior RAAF Medical Officer aboard US Naval Hospital Ship, USNS Comfort, during the 1991 Gulf War. He has also been deployed to Kuwait, Rwanda, Bougainville and East Timor.

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