Aceh’s
life savers
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ADF
medical staff in Banda Aceh provided health care to the
local population and injured military, humanitarian aid
and media personnel in the region.
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Photo
by CPL Belinda Mepham
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MY
NAME is Helmar Buechel. I am a reporter for SPIEGEL TV, Germany.
I was on assignment in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, when I had an accident
on January 5 at the military airport in the city.
Doctors and medics of the ADF who were stationed at the airport
immediately took care of me and treated me excellently.
I would like to thank them now that I have recovered, but unfortunately
at the time of the accident I was not really in the shape to write
down names and addresses.
I just remember two names: Dr Jeff Stephenson, who stamped my
medical documents with “MO 3HOSP”, and Anna-Lisa Rosenthal, the
nurse who also appears on the document.
A third – WGCDR Bill Griggs – I just found while searching the
Air Force newspaper web site.
I am interested in contacting them or their unit. Thank you very
much.
Helmar
Buechel
SPIEGEL TV
Germany
What
kind of operational service deserves a medal?
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Not
everyone supporting East Timor deployments entered the country.
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Photo
by MAJ Dave Munro
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DURING
ADF operations in East Timor in 1999 and 2000 (Operation Spitfire
and Operation Warden), supporting personnel who did not leave
Australian shores received little or no formal recognition for
their efforts.
The kind of people I am referring to are the ones who spent countless
weeks deployed away to Darwin, Tindal, Townsville and elsewhere
working long hours to support the operational imperatives that
existed at the time.
Although some units issued these personnel with certificates of
appreciation, to the best of my knowledge, honours similar to
those accorded to personnel who set foot in East Timor were not
granted.
While I understand the often complex nature of the military honours
and awards system, I cannot understand how we have missed awarding
Australian-based East Timor support personnel with some level
of formal recognition.
This type of situation has arisen before with the Vietnam Logistic
and Support Medal being a good example of recognition for service
that did not fit neatly with other awards for service in a particular
conflict or operation.
I would be interested to hear other perspectives on the specific
question of East Timor support personnel and also on the broader
issue of recognising participants in other Australian or regionally
based operations.
I certainly don’t want to see a system of awards for every activity
that is performed, but I would argue that we still have some way
to go in providing appropriate recognition for the efforts of
ADF personnel.
WOFF
Paul Dowdle
Australian Bomb Data Centre
Canberra.
Professional
Iraq trainers make the job much easier
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Army
and Air Force trainers made the job of movements coordinators
easy for the return from Iraq.
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Photo
by CPL Neil Ruskin
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I
WOULD like to congratulate the members of the Australian Army
Training Team Iraq 2 (AATTI-2) for their outstanding assistance
in providing a seamless transition into and out of Iraq.
The AATTI-2 comprised of both Army and Air Force personnel who
all contributed magnificently to the difficult task at hand.
1st Joint Movement Group’s service is highly dependant upon timely
advice of a requirement, clear communication of specific needs
and any inhibiting factors, and accurate notification of deployment
planning data sheets from the customer.
The excellent communication, timely provision of unit and data
and the follow-on liaison between my deployed Joint Movement Control
Centre and members of AATTI-2 provided excellent scope for the
planning and execution of the movement of equipment and personnel
within the theatre of operations.
The personnel of AATTI-2 were well briefed on movement options
by their liaison officer, were highly professional and ordered
in their approach and they remained flexible throughout the entire
process.
Congratulations and my sincere thanks to the soldiers, airmen
and officers involved for a job extremely well done.
GPCAPT
Peter Brennan
Commander 1st Joint
Movements Group Defence Plaza - Sydney
