60th celebrations

37SQN Crest.

TO commemorate 60 years of service, No. 37 Squadron will hold celebrations at RAAF Base Richmond on November 16 from 9.30am-4pm.

Ex-Squadron members are invited to join in the festivities, which include a C-130J flying display, simulator flights, static displays, dog-handling presentation and a buffet lunch.

37SQN was formed on July 15, 1943, and earned battle honours during WWII for the Pacific, Darwin and Morotai campaigns.

After the war, it was disbanded and re-established at RAAF Richmond in 1966, equipped with C-130 Hercules. 37SQN has supported operations in Vietnam, Cambodia, Bougainville, East Timor, Bali, the Middle East and the Solomon Islands.

For more information, or to buy meal passes for the buffet lunch for $5, contact Pilot Officer Sarah-Jane Crane on (02) 4587 3727 or (02) 4587 3702. RSVP by November 7.

Intense time for 37SQN

By FSGT Paul Shannon-Hooper

NO. 37 Squadron has had an intense period of activity ahead of next month’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

Five aircraft and about 30 support personnel deployed to RAAF Base Townsville for Exercise Crocodile 03, followed two weeks later by a smaller deployment to RAAF Base Edinburgh as part of 02/03 C-130J Pilot Conversion Course.

37SQN personnel were among the 1250-strong influx to RAAF Base Townsville for Croc 03. The impressive list of participating aircraft included five C-130Js from 37SQN and five C-130Hs from No. 36 Squadron.

In one of the largest deployments of tactical transport aircraft in recent years, they conducted two large-scale parachute assaults on the Shoalwater Bay Training Area. A 13.6 tonne bulldozer, 105mm Hamel guns, four-wheel drive vehicles and more than 400 members of the 3RAR were dropped in each of the early morning raids.

The C-130 phase of the exercise was the first combined 36SQN and 37SQN parachute battalion drop away from home base. Future drops will steadily increase the number of aircraft involved and will further test the new facilities at Townsville.

Crews worked around the clock to prepare aircraft, equipment and personnel.

The operational sorties in the north switched to training sorties in the south. Two C-130Js and a maintenance crew of 10 joined 14 staff and students of No. 285 Squadron’s 02/03 C-130J Pilot Conversion Course.

Air training en route and at Edinburgh took advantage of reduced traffic levels compared to Sydney airspace and provided opportunities for instrument approaches, route flying and circuits. The pressurisation chamber at the Institute of Aviation Medicine was also utilised.

The students were put through their paces with day and night trainers. The maintainers promptly rectified any unserviceability before the next sortie. Aircrew and ground crew each gained valuable experience at operating away from home base.

The C-130Js of 37SQN will no doubt see more deployments in the near future. Operations such as those in the Solomon Islands and the Middle East show that airlift can be needed anywhere and anytime. Every deployment, no matter how large or small, helps refine that capability.

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