Image Gallery 2009
15 May 2009
The cavemen are busy today
The Rotary Wing Group C Sqn Tech Support Troop, ‘The Cavemen’, are performing regular 10 - day avionics tests and removing a blade from the rear rotor of one of their CH-47D Chinooks at Kandahar Airfield.
Craftsman James Chapman is proud of the moniker, spray painted and heat –etched onto nearly every surface and vehicle the detachment owns.
“We are the guardian of the dinosaurs’, he says, nodding to the Chinook on the concrete outside the Australian ‘clamshell’ tent.
Soon six-barreled M 134D miniguns will be fitted to the machine, once the avionics techs ensure the electronic self protection suite operates correctly.
“The aircrew likes to know that it works right,” CFN Chapman says.
“And it’s good to for us to know.”
One of the miniguns – which can spew 3000 rounds a minute – is being serviced in a sealed workshop in the rear of the tent. CPL Phillip Bell, 34, has the disassembled barrels laid out neatly and is carefully cleaning the remainder of the gun.
He dusts off brass shavings, comfortable with heavily greased hands and stained t-shirt, hallmarks of the hours he puts in at his workbench.
CPL Bell is happy in his work, but his mind never strays from Townsville and his seven children – James, Catherine, Damien, Carmel, Anna, Elizabeth and Joseph.
Both his wife Anita and his mother come from families of seven.
“I probably haven’t realized how big the family is until the kids grow up and get married,” he says.
“There are hundreds of us; I haven’t thought of world domination yet.”
The Rotary Wing Group operate from Kandahar, in Afghanistan’s south. The two dark Australian machines are nestled among Dutch Chinooks, almost bright green in comparison, and a row of new pale Khaki US CH-47Fs.
To describe Kandahar Airfield as bustling is a euphemism. It is expected that, with the influx of US forces into Afghanistan, one aircraft will, on average, lift off or land on the airfield every three minutes. Simply put, it is the busiest airfield on the globe.
At night, the strip sounds busier, with jets, prop aircraft and helicopters crossing the airfield constantly.
“We recently had a C-17 land every five minutes,” CFN Chapman says. He is reclining on a timber deck mounted on two iso containers.
From the deck the airfield stretches away, a concrete ribbon lined with Black Hawks, Chinooks, Kiowas, Sea Kings and Apaches. Across the airstrip are parked white Mi-8s, while at the far end a colossal Mi-26 sits, brooding in the sun and dwarfing the machines arrayed beside it.
Cavemen they may be, but the craftsmen of the TST have brought a touch of civilization to their workspace.
A swimming pool has been installed in the deck, neatly fitted into the plywood floor and dust-proofed with an auscam tarp.
The pool is simple – a pump and a water tank with the roof removed.
“Don’t ask me how we got the tank, CFN Chapman says.
“I don’t know and I won’t say.”
The timber had been scavenged from around KAF – the TST employing the resourcefulness that lined their adjacent IDF bunker with stretchers.
“The Americans are highly jealous of the pool,” CFN Chapman says.
“They come up here and ask ‘how did you get that?’ We say we built it.”
The Rotary Wing Group maintains good relations with the Coalition forces around KAF, and have even put some time in helping their Canadian counterparts come to terms with their own newly-acquired Chinooks.
“It’s good to see how well we are trained,” CFN Jason Buttigieg, 33, says.
“The Yanks have four or five different blokes to do the same job as one of us.”
As outlined in the Defence White Paper released in early May, the Australian Defence Force will acquire seven CH-47F models, as used by the US Army in Afghanistan.
| 20090505adf8239716_042 5th Aviation Regiment, C Squadron Tech Support Troop Craftsman Jason Buttigieg and ground crewman Corporal Micheal Coleman conduct a full inspection of all equipment on the CH-47D Chinook helicopter before its next mission. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_078 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members prepare to reattach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_080 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members reattach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_102 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members reattach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_109 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members reattach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_111 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members re-attach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_118 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members re-attach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_131 5th Aviation Regiment, C Squadron Tech Support Troop Craftsman James Chapman displays one of the Australian Flags being auctioned to raise money for Legacy after been flown on a mission over Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_155 5th Aviation Regiment, Tech Support Troop members re-attach the rotor blades onto a CH-47D Chinook helicopter based at Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_170 5th Aviation Regiment, C Squadron air crewman Corporal Donnell Riddle prepares for another task in a CH-47D Chinook helicopter. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090505adf8239716_173 5th Aviation Regiment, C Squadron air crewman Corporal Donnell Riddle prepares for another task in a CH-47D Chinook helicopter. (Date taken: 05 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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| 20090507adf8239716_129 5th Aviation Regiment, C Squadron CH-47D Chinook helicopter pilots, Captain Naomi Rogusz and Captain Sacheen Gallop, with Military Working Dog "Kim", display one of the Legacy Aussie flags which they are taking on their mission over Afghanistan. (Date taken: 07 May 2009) Low-Res | Hi-Res |
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