Sergeant Katarina Babic at the communications centre at Australian National Command Element in Dili. She is part of the force of about 1100 full-time and part-time ADF personnel serving with the United Nations Mission in East Timor. Photo by LS Ollie Garside

By CPL Jonathan Garland

DEPLOYED to East Timor from her position as an instructor, one airwoman is looking forward to taking recent operational experience back to the classroom.

Sergeant Katarina Babic, an instructor at the Defence Force School of Signals, is working in the communications centre at Australian National Command Element in Dili, East Timor.

She said her role in East Timor was the same as it would be anywhere else.

“It’s the same job, same paperwork, same everything no matter where you are – you have different names and different units to deal with but each comcentre is basically the same,” she said. “What is different about the environment here is that everyone lives and works in one another’s pocket all the time, so there’s a little less formality and it’s a tight-knit group.”

SGT Babic said the value of operational experience for an instructor could not be underestimated.

“I’ll be able to give my students a better heads-up on what to expect on deployment. There are two people at the school who’ve been to Cambodia and Somalia but it’s nice to get something more current.

“Seeing one of their instructors deploy might bring it home to them that things are happening out there and the chance of them going away are getting higher.”

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