Handover of command of East Timor’s skies

Wing Commander Tom Cowan during his time as Chief of the United Nations Peace Keeping Force Air Operations Centre. Photo by LS Ollie Garside.

By SGT Jonathan Garland

AFTER six months of being in control of the complex web of aviation tasking that fills the sky over East Timor, Wing Commander Tom Cowan has returned to Australia.

WGCDR Cowan was the Chief of the UN Peacekeeping Force (PKF) Air Operations Centre responsible for the tasking and operation of all UN air assets during his deployment.

“This included both Australian and Singaporean military helicopters and contractors running four Russian MI-8s, two Bell 212s and two Dash-7 fixed-wing aircraft,” he said.

Normal tasking involves resupply missions to various contingents in East Timor and international runs for personnel and supplies.

“There are about five regular flights a day and on top of that there are special flight requests, which are additional tasks, and ad hoc operations, which involve short notice and often late nights.”

WGCDR Cowan said the multi-national environment was a rewarding one, despite initial language problems.

“I was lucky enough to have a number of multilingual personnel – I think I had someone who can talk in most of the major languages of the UN mission,” he said.

While applauding the amount of work done in East Timor, he said there remained a great deal yet to do.

“I think, because we’ve been there for a couple of years, people are starting to forget there are still troops in East Timor. Anyone who’s been there for any length of time realises there’s a great deal still to do and East Timor will be an area of interest for Australia for some time to come.

“The next 12 months until the UN mission concludes will be just as busy as the first 12 months were.”
Wing Commander Wayne Bradley has replaced WGCDR Cowan at the PKF Air Operations Centre.

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