LEARNING
the local lingo could be troublesome, as Wing Commander Peter
Shinnick, the No. 381 Expeditionary Combat Support Squadron commanding
officer, recalled.
“Flight Sergeant Dave Grey was conducting the language lessons
and I didn’t know him from a bar of soap – I thought he was an
Indonesian specialist who had been brought in. “Dave was teaching
us the Bahasa for simple expressions such as ‘stop, put your weapon
down’ and ‘stop, go back’ when Flight Lieutenant Linus Ng asked
him a question in Bahasa that we hadn’t practised.
“When he [Ng] got a blank stare back he asked another, and again
the blank stare came back. He asked Dave in English if he knew
much Bahasa. ‘Stuff all except what is on this piece of paper
in front of me,’ was the reply, which cracked us up. I learnt
from that session that Linus was fluent in Bahasa, which later
proved to be of great value.”
For No. 2 Airfield Defence Squadron, language differences were
more sensitive. On September 25 the squadron reported there was
a “large increase” of Indonesian military at Comoro who were “becoming
less friendly”.
Flying Officer Paul Brnada recalled the “Mexican standoff” between
Indonesian troops and the patrol he had been ordered to lead into
a village in the area of operations. The parties faced each other
in a situation of increased tension, surreptitiously pointing
small arms at each other.
FLGOFF Brnada was able to defuse the situation only when he tasked
Leading Aircraftman Josh Page, who had a working knowledge of
Bahasa, to tell the Indonesians he “was more scared of his boss
than any of the weapons pointed at me”. The chuckle from the Indonesians
eased the tension.
