Finger on the pulse

Captain Alwyn Payne is a watch officer on the Current Operations desk at HQ CJTF 629, located in Medan, Northern Sumatra. He is responsible for monitoring signals, telephone and e-mail traffic to ensure he can keep the commander and his staff advised of events as they happen.

Lo-res | Hi-res

By Corporal Cameron Jamieson - filed 09 February 2005

A commander is only as good at the information he gets, and in disaster relief operations bad information can cost lives.

For the personnel in the operations room of Combined Joint Task Force 629, the pressure is always there to clear away the confusion of the destruction and bring order to the situation.

Located in a hotel in Medan, in the province of Northwest Sumatra, the headquarters element of the Australian-led task force keeps a 24-hour watch on the humanitarian aid effort in Aceh province as part of Operation Sumatra Assist, the Australian Defence Force's assistance mission to the Indonesian disaster relief effort in Sumatra.

Captain Alwyn Payne is a watch officer on the current operations desk, and has played an integral part in sorting the information that has entered the headquarters.

He is responsible for monitoring signals, telephone and e-mail traffic to ensure he can keep the commander and his staff abreast of operational developments.

He said the first weeks of Operation Sumatra Assist were a frenzy of activity as Australia's response to the Boxing Day disaster moved into top gear.

"It was certainly crazy at the beginning," he said.

"For the first couple of weeks there were many long hours and a lot of organised chaos to penetrate to get the stores, equipment and people into theatre in the right priority.

"Getting the priorities right was the key issue in order to ensure the force-flow was correct, and ensuring the commander was aware of the conflicting demands on those priorities so that he could make the best decision based on that information.

"Now that those first few weeks are over, we have seen a steadying of the operation and things have became a lot more predictable and deliberate, with fewer short-notice decisions to be made."

Although the personnel of the task force headquarters are located in a large hotel, the nature of their work isolates them from world outside.

Nevertheless, the Indonesians staying at the hotel have made their appreciation of the Australian effort clear.

"The people I have come across have all been happy to see us and pleased that the ADF is over here, contributing to the disaster relief operations," Captain Payne said.

"Along with a good sense of humour, the feedback from the locals helps give me a sense of worth that keeps me focused on the job at hand."

Captain Payne is proud of what the ADF has achieved in Indonesia, and is glad to have played a part in assisting the people of Indonesia.

"We are over here to help after a horrible disaster, and what we have achieved as a task force has helped thousands and thousands of people in need," he said.