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Canberra Times coverage on the retirement of the Caribou from RAAF Service.

The Canberra Times apologises for the low res graphics, this is for copyright protection.

Click here to view article.

A Welcome Home Parade to mark the conclusion of Operation CATALYST Australian Operations in Iraq will take place at:

1400 hours, 21 November at the Australian War Memorial.

Parking will be available at Russell Offices. Shuttle buses will loop from Russell Drive to Treloar Crescent behind the Australian War Memorial.

The first bus will depart Russell Drive at 1300 hours and the last shuttle will leave the Australian War Memorial at 1600 hours.

Those wishing to attend the parade as spectators can register their interest via email to:Click here to register an interest.

This is an outside ceremony, so please bring water, hats, sun block and suitable clothing for the weather conditions on the day.

Click here to view Defence information on the Parade.

Courtesy of Peter Holz, we’ve added a page entitled Australian Military Personnel Serving Abroad – Statistics.

The purpose of this page is to provide statistics about Australia’s involvement in the different conflicts around the world since 1860. Data are taken mostly from information supplied by the Australian War Memorial Research Center.

The list will need to be updated, so if that’s an interest of yours, please keep us informed.

Already the list is out of date. Yesterday the first four Australian Defence Force peacekeepers left Sydney for a six-month stint supporting the United Nations and African Union mission in the troubled Sudanese region of Darfur.

A further five Australians will join them in the coming weeks.

The peacekeepers will help coordinate the mission to try to curb the violence in Darfur. About 300,000 people have been killed in the conflict and more than 2 million people left homeless.

Times they are a’changing… reports in the last week that the majority of Australia’s soldiers in the Solomon Islands now are reservists, and that young men spending a gap year in the military have been told to expect to be deployed to volatile East Timor.

The ABC reports that 40 Army Reservists have just returned from the Solomon Islands, where they’ve been patrolling the Solomons capital Honiara and outlying villages to maintain peace.

The volunteer soldiers, whose civilian jobs range from fashion designers to accountants, have been deployed in Solomons for four months.

An Army spokesman, Lieutenant Tom Hinds, says volunteers are playing a key role in some operations because Australia is committed to campaigns in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor.

“[The] majority of the soldiers in the Solomon Islands now are reservists,” he said.

“That is a great way of taking some of the operational pressure off the regular army.”

The 40 men and women have all been awarded the Australian Service Medal for their work in the Solomons.

Meanwhile, David Mclennan reports in The Canberra Times that gap year soldiers, who are midway through their year trying out the military, have completed basic training and have been deployed to bases around the country.

Some of those sent to Darwin have told family they had been advised their next stop was likely to be East Timor.

However, although a Defence spokeswoman confirmed it was possible for army and air force gap year participants to be deployed to operations, she denied there were “any arrangements, plans or intentions” to do so.

“ADF gap year participants would not normally be expected to deploy on operations. The time factor alone makes operational service unlikely given recruiting and initial training can take up to six months and that most operational deployments are also for six months, there will not be the time for the necessary force preparation that we insist on for our deployed personnel,” she said.

“The key exception to this is that all navy gap year participants have the opportunity to serve at sea for approximately three months by nature an ‘operational’ environment.”

Defence has reportedly told the gap year participants that it plans to send them on shorter tours, of about three months.

Disposable C-130, originally uploaded by vvfact.

U.S. Air Force explosive ordnance disposalmen from the 447th Air Expeditionary Group detonate explosives attached to the wings of a C-130 Hercules aircraft at Sather Air Base in Iraq July 7, 2008. The aircraft was disabled after it made an emergency landing last month, and the Airmen are using a series of controlled detonations to divide the aircraft into smaller pieces so it can be moved. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Allen, U.S. Air Force. (Released)

It is believed that it was a total engine failure. May have been a four-engine roll-back problem that was an issue some years back. I know that the Americans lost a C130 on take off in Africa following a four-engine roll-back just after lift off.

- Lance Haslewood

Gold Coast Bulletin – Editorial, 10 Jul 08

IT IS worth remembering, on the occasion of the death of the second Gold Coast soldier in Afghanistan, that our national freedom comes at a heartbreaking price.

Former Trinity Lutheran College student, Signaller Sean McCarthy, was at the front line of the civilised world’s war against terrorism. Like Oxenford soldier David Pearce last year, he was killed by a roadside bomb in a war that shows every sign of intensifying.

His loss — and that of the other five Diggers who have died in Afghanistan — puts that nasty war in historical context.

We are reminded of September 11, 2001, of the devastating attacks on the Western world’s values, the murderous plans of Osama bin Laden, the Stone Age ideals of the Taliban, the re-emergence of the biggest supplier of heroin in the world and the strategic importance of Afghanistan in Asia.

Signaller McCarthy’s death also emphasises that tens of thousands of soldiers, including Americans, Australians, Britons, Canadians and NATO troops from all over Europe, are doing their best not just to defend Afghans against the dark forces of the Taliban, but also to rebuild the country and maintain the balance of power in the region.

Afghanistan is the cradle for a brand of terrorism that has rocked the world; all civilised societies have a responsibility to contain this evil and, if possible, to root it out.

From Australia’s perspective, we do not readily seek war, but nor do we shirk our responsibilities.

We send our young men and women off to war to defend oppressed people against tyrants and to build societies for a better and more tolerant world.

We do not turn our backs on people who need us; we have fought against Hitler, Tojo, the communists of Southeast Asia and the insurgents of East Timor and the Solomons.

The ruthless forces of the Taliban have the potential to turn Kabul into ruins, to persecute women, to incite war between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan and to relaunch terror campaigns around the world.

Signaller McCarthy was part of the great push to defeat the bullies and every Australian should feel proud of his efforts.

His death also should remind politicians that our servicemen and women — the nation’s ultimate patriots — should be given the respect they deserve, in life and in death.

A soldier’s pay is not generous compared with that of many Australians, yet they are expected to put their lives on the line and to suffer hardships that most people would consider unbearable.

They go to places such as Afghanistan knowing that behind-the-lines, contractors well away from danger are making fortunes.

It is little wonder that many young soldiers, after a couple of tours of duty, leave the service forever and head for better-paid civilian careers.

We hope that a change of government causes an improvement in the way the Department of Veterans’ Affairs discharges its responsibilities to Signaller McCarthy’s family and to all other service personnel, past and present.

Under former Minister Bruce Bilson, the department had a sorry record of dealing with veterans.

It can only be hoped that under new Minister Alan Griffin, Veterans’ Affairs will untangle the paperwork of the Repatriation Commission, Centrelink, Defence and several other departments and make life easier for the families of Diggers.

Nothing can blunt the grief associated with a soldier’s death, but the least a nation can do for its defenders is to look after their families and treat their claims with dignity and efficiency. Let’s not quibble about the debt this country owes its armed forces.

- Peter Holz

Excellent video of a USAF AC-130 Hercules Spectre supporting the extraction of Brit Special Forces in Afganistan.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P88Rf8_lu5A[/youtube].

AC-130 Gunship Mission

An Australian soldier has been killed in a bomb attack in Afghanistan.

Defence chief Angus Houston this morning confirmed the death – the sixth since 2002 and the second this year.

The soldier who died was 25-year-old Signaller Sean McCarthy, from the Perth-based Special Air Service Regiment.

Air Chief Marshal Houston said Signaller McCarthy and three other soldiers were injured yesterday by an explosive device while on patrol in an area thought to contain Taliban extremists.

Despite medical attention, New Zealand-born Signaller McCarthy died.

He joined the Australian Defence Force in 2001 and the SAS last year.

Defence chiefs vowed to target bomb makers in a bid to keep troops safe.

“Clearly, if we want to look after our people, what we’ve got to do is do anything we can do to disrupt any activity that moves the materials that are required to build these devices (IEDs),” Air Chief Marshal Houston said.

An Australian Special Forces soldier who was wounded in late June has returned to Australia for further medical treatment of wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an IED. The digger was part of a patrol returning from a successful clearance operation when the IED strike occurred. Another soldier travelling in the same vehicle was slightly wounded in the explosion. The seriously wounded digger and his colleague were provided immediate first aid by their patrol mates and evacuated by helicopter to a nearby medical facility. The medical prognosis for both men is good but given the nature of the wounds it was prudent to return one of them to Australia for rehabilitation and recovery. The slightly wounded soldier remains in Afghanistan and following a short period of recovery will return to full operational duty.
- Peter Holz

When Peter Leahy joined the Australian Army 37 years ago, our soldiers were highly proficient in counterinsurgency warfare. Coming out of the New Guinea campaign in World War II, the army had been engaged continuously in unconventional conflict, including the Malayan emergency in the 1950s and confrontation with Indonesia in the early 1960s, followed by Vietnam.

Nearly four decades on, the army is back in the counterinsurgency game in Afghanistan, acquiring new war-fighting skills. Army planners are now writing a new counterinsurgency doctrine that embraces a wholly different battlefield to that experienced in the jungles of South Vietnam.

Lieutenant-General Leahy, 55, retired from the army on Thursday as the longest serving army chief since Harry Chauvel 80 years ago.

But unlike Chauvel, who stepped down in 1930 at the onset of the Depression, leaving a budget-starved permanent land force of barely 1500 men, Leahy is leaving when the army is flourishing and in the middle of a 10-year, $10 billion rebuilding program.

During his six years as army chief, Leahy has presided over the most radical transformation in the land force since Vietnam. The 21st-century Australian army has undergone significant changes in its combat formations and acquired new equipment worth billions of dollars, including tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, sophisticated satellite communications and armed reconnaissance helicopters.

The new hardware has been accompanied by a thorough overhaul of training and war-fighting doctrine, as well as the army reserve. During the Leahy era the army has been fully stretched by a broad range of overseas operations, including combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and stabilisation missions in East Timor and Solomon Islands.

Under Leahy’s leadership the army’s intellectual core has been reinvigorated, putting it well ahead of the air force and the navy when it comes to defining its essential military doctrine and capabilities. Leahy has combined this intellectual rejuvenation of the officer corps with political skills of a kind seldom seen in a service chief in the modern era.

As chief of army he won John Howard’s support for a $10 billion rebuilding of the army under a hardening and networking plan that involves increasing the land force to 30,000 personnel by 2014. He also stared down opposing military and departmental chiefs, convincing Howard that the army should acquire new tanks.

In a farewell interview with Inquirer this week, Leahy’s key message is that the army must be progressively more skilful, adaptable and flexible in the face of an overcrowded and disordered world.

He predicts that the army may have to grow even larger than the planned 30,000 within the next decade in the face of globalised security challenges.

“If this volatility is sustained in the security environment, there would be an argument for a larger army beyond this. Now I don’t know how big that is, but right now it’s about right. But in the future, in the next five to 10 years, there could be an argument for a larger army.

“What we are seeing and will see increasingly in the future is that deployments will be land-centric. The army is naturally the force best suited to working among populations. Post-Iraq it’s not a momentum that’s going to subside.”

Leahy argues that the post-Cold War era has led to a “democratisation of lethality” as insurgents use more powerful weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs. The enemy has vacated an ordered battlefield and gone to the cities, he says.

For the Australian Army, this unconventional challenge means building composite combined arms teams with a high degree of firepower and protection, an army “harder to hit, and able to hit harder with real precision”.

A typical battle group now deployed overseas on operations has specialists drawn from more than 20 different corps or skills sets with the “big muscle movement” provided by infantry and cavalry units serving alongside each other.

The 2000 defence white paper called for the army to be capable of sustaining a brigade on overseas operations as well as having at least a battalion group available elsewhere. This strategic guidance has underpinned the planned expansion to a 30,000-strong force, including two new battalions, one of which has already seen operational service.

Leahy is unapologetic about the army’s drive for more firepower and armoured protection in the form of the Abrams tanks, light-armoured fighting vehicles and troop transports such as the highly successful Australian-made Bushmaster. “I am a conservative sort of guy,” he says. “There are unnecessary risks that other people are prepared to take with soldiers’ lives that I am not prepared to take. Tanks save lives and I just wish the critics would inform themselves rather than continue with inaccuracies.”

He sees Afghanistan as a long-term assignment for the Australian military, with “five or more years of work to be done”.

Leahy believes Afghanistan is winnable but will require a sustained and focused effort involving a much broader strategy than military operations against the Taliban.

“We can only do so much and then you need people to help with education, roads and the economy and everything else that needs to be done.”

Leahy is cautious when asked about a wider military role for Australia in Oruzgan province should the Dutch reduce their involvement from 2010, but acknowledges the army has the capacity to do more if required.

“We are a non-NATO contributor and we are one of the larger contributors. I think there is an increased role (for) NATO and we should not be rushing to do any more before we see NATO make a forward commitment.

“Do we need more Australians? No. We are making our contribution. Do we need more NATO forces? Yes. It would be good to have them more broadly spread across the south.”

He says he had no misgivings about Australia’s military involvement in the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

He adds, however, that the US made mistakes in the post-war phase of its occupation of Iraq, particularly in terms of disbanding the Iraqi army and the extent of the de-Baathification process in the Iraqi civil service.

A lesson from Iraq, Leahy says, is that there are strict limits to the utility of military force in contemporary conflicts. “There needs to be a concerted whole-of-government approach,” he says. “We can deliver security but we can’t deliver reconstruction and rehabilitation without a lot of help.”

Leahy nominates among his achievements the enhanced role of women in combat units and the revamp of the Army Reserve, which now includes reservist units serving in Solomon Islands.

Today’s soldiers, he says, are better prepared for operations in places such as Afghanistan than ever before, learning local languages and cultural mores before deployment, in addition to undergoing intensive pre-deployment exercises. “We have native speakers come to them. We have imams come to them and talk to them about how to show respect in the local communities. We are doing protecting, supporting and persuading.”

Army recruitment rates are the best in years despite the nationwide skills shortage, with retention rates now averaging more than 10per cent.

“I keep hearing about generation Y, the short attention spans, wanting more. We are getting generation Y but they are not the ones I see described in the literature,” he says about recruits born between 1980 and 1994.

“These are people who are making a commitment and are proud to do the traditional things and are prepared to go overseas and accept the difficulties and the dangers and do something for Australia. We have got plenty of them and I think Australia should be very proud of them.”

Leaving the service he joined nearly 40 years ago at the age of 18, Leahy has no doubts the army is in good shape.

“I think we are a generous country. I have fond memories of Villers-Bretonneux (the French town Australian troops recaptured in April 1918), where French men and women come up to you and say, ‘Thank you for coming to help save our democracy.’

“We have got a great country and we have ideals for other people as well as ourselves. That’s what I saw in the army when I joined in 1971, and that’s what I see today.”

- Inquirer