Moving mountains in the Middle East

Mountains of Mail: Private Danielle Parry and Private Aimee Addis, from the Force Level Logistic Asset in the Middle East, carry bags of mail to a waiting vehicle. Large quantities of mail are just one of the services the Force Level Logistic Asset provides in the Middle East Area of Operations. Low Res | High Res

By Corporal Cameron Jamieson, Directorate Defence Newspapers (filed 25 May 2005)

All eyes may be on the frontline in Iraq but there are mountains to be moved to make sure the troops at the sharp end get the gear they need.

And it is in a quiet partitioned section of a warehouse in the Middle East that the men and women of the Force Level Logistic Asset (FLLA) are moving these mountains. At all hours of every day there you can find something happening - stores being loaded onto pallets, mail being sorted or troops being collected from an airport.

It is a genuine 24/7 operation, complete with a detachment in Baghdad, and the soldiers, sailors and air force personnel of this joint unit have taken on all challenges with the determination born of an operational environment.

Major Phillip Hoglin, the Officer Commanding the asset, said the main challenge was to maintain a rapid distribution service to the troops in Iraq.

"The reception, staging, on-ward movement and integration of troops into Iraq is a highly visible function so a lot of people think that's all we do," he said.

"But we're actually a supply and distribution organisation so the challenge is to move stores from Australia to the end user in Iraq as fast as we can.

"That has its own problems as we don't necessarily own the resources that transport the items - often they are owned by our coalition partners.

"And then there are many strange and non-routine tasks but its challenges like that which keep our people going; providing opportunities they wouldn't normally get in the workplace."

The arrival of the Al Muthanna Task Group into Iraq has overlapped the change over of the Security Detachment in Baghdad so the midnight oil has been burning brightly in the warehouse.

To add more work to their schedule, the FLLA is scheduled to move to a new purpose-built facility within a month, a challenge Major Hoglin thinks will be their greatest to date.

"The schedule for the move is very tight," he said.

"But it means we will be able to do our job even better."