Our People in NSW
Kharn Tatam - Kharn's bringing home the Timor files
MONAVALE’S Kharn Tatam is the man on the ground responsible for bringing the Australian Defence Force’s information back from Timor Leste.
The father of two and former St Augustines graduate will spend Christmas deployed to Operation ASTUTE in Dili as the information manager bringing ADF documents and information back to Australia for archive purposes.
Kharn, 42, said he is enjoying his first operational deployment and had been kept very busy with the requirements of securing all the information in what has become a computer-generated age of information.
“I have deployed to Timor Leste as the officer in charge of the Information Management Cell and manage a team of highly competent clerks to sort all records generated since the start of the International Stabilisation Force in 2006,” he said.
“This is for legal and historical and reasons and the team has worked in very hot and humid conditions in a hangar to ensure the information is accurate, up to date and ready to go back to Australia.
“On the other hand, I have been working in an office that used to be a toilet, complete with the tiles on the wall – the girls get plenty of laughs out of it and believe it’s a fair trade-off for the air-conditioning!”
Kharn said he was enjoying the opportunity to work in a joint environment and meeting the local community.
“It’s a fascinating country and I’ll never forget my first flight over by helicopter, the smells of the city and my visit to Atauro Island.”
In his limited spare time Kharn tries to exercise as much as he can, watches television and tries to sample Timorese coffee whenever he gets the opportunity.
Kharn, whose grandfather was in the Royal Indian Navy, will return to Canberra at the end of his deployment to work for Air Force Air Command.
Timor Leste began an exciting new chapter in its history when the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) ceased security operations on 22 November.
After more than six years of supporting the Timor Leste security forces, the ISF role has changed to the redeployment of its people and equipment to Australia and New Zealand. ISF troops started to depart Timor Leste in late November and bases will be remediated for handover by mid-2013.