High rewards from Sierra

By CPL Belinda Mepham

EVERY trainee fighter pilot on Exercise High Serria requires the services of more than 200 people to get off the ground during the three-week final exam.

Executive Officer of No. 323 Combat Support Squadron Squadron Leader Pete Turner said High Sierra is the final training exercise for jet fighter pilots, or F/A-18 pilots and once the five students on course pass they graduate as fighter pilots and are posted out to a line fighter squadron.

“323 CSS is a combat support unit and we exist to provide the infrastructure, the facilities, the people, the services, the logistic support to make exercises and activities like High Sierra work,” he said.

“This is our war-time role. We don’t deploy offshore in wartime. This is what we do in peace and war and I think we do it pretty well.

“We won the Hawker Siddley trophy, so I reckon that’s proof enough.

“The Air Force has a pretty strong link with Hawker Siddley and the trophy is awarded annually for the most proficient unit or base in the Air Force and we were lucky enough to win it for last year,” he said

“High Sierra got a mention specifically in the award, so we’ve been doing it here in Townsville for a good many years. It is a case of first-class facilities, first-class training areas, the various ranges we use and first-class people supporting it.”

SQNLDR Turner said the fast-jets were what made people look to the sky and they are there because of a lot of hard work both above and on the ground.

“And the value of exercises like High Sierra is that about a year ago there were some guys here doing High Sierra who have subsequently graduated, went to a fighter squadron and have only recently come back from the Middle East where they were doing for real what they were training to do when they were here. So it’s real-world training for real-world situations.”

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