Category: Defence

Digger killed in Taliban clash

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AUSTRALIAN troops are believed to have been involved in a Taliban attack in Afghanistan, resulting in casualties including the death of a soldier. The Australian Defence Force will hold a media briefing at 7.30am (AEST) today to provide details on the incident believed to involve casualties from a Taliban attack. UPDATE An Australian special forces commando has been killed and four others have been wounded in a firefight with Taliban militants near the Australian base in the southern Oruzgan Province. Twenty-seven-year-old Lance Corporal Jason Marks was killed last night (Afghan time) during an attack on a Taliban position 25 kilometres south of the Australian base at Tarin Kowt. Lance Corporal Marks was a father of two who was born in Broken Hill in the far west of New South Wales and was raised in Yeppoon in Queensland. Source ABC News The report continues;
Defence Force head Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston said Lance Corporal Marks was part of a Special Operations Task Group (SOTG) platoon which was leading a company-level “deliberate assault” at the time of the firefight. He said they were attacked while they were out in the open and preparing for their own assault on the Taliban.
Likely translation. The guys were involved in a Company Attack and were caught moving to or from the FUP
Defence, War on Terror

China watch

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While the Olympic torch was being run through Canberra I was otherwise involved in ANZAC Day prep and planning so had little chance to blog on the issue. I thought, given a couple of days the media would be investigating how come so many pro-Chinese Chinese arrived at Canberra in such an organized fashion. It was almost as if the Red Army had provided the convoy to move the troops. No one has followed it up so I’ll say it. The move of the Chinese students was too slick to have been organized by a bunch of youths. Someone stepped in and organized and paid for the coaches from other cities and considering that the only organization that`stood to benefit is the Chinese government then it is a reasonable deduction that they planned the event. If this is true then we should all feel very indignant that a foreign power is moving ‘troops’ around Australia for their political gain. I certainly do. The saga of the Red Chinese Guards torch minders being allowed on the streets to run with the torch and ‘protect’ it descended into chaos when the government backed down and left the matter to the poor AFP individual who we all witnessed on TV trying to muscle the Chinese away from the torch carrier. It struck me as undignified and the world witnessed Australia abrogating it’s sovereignty to the Chinese. Not happy, Kevin.
Defence

Tax ’em into sobriety

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FEDERAL Health Minister Nicola Roxon has blamed the former Howard Government for the rise in teenage binge drinking. Nicola uses some pretty inventive logic to suggest the Howard government is solely to blame for the rate of teenager girls drinking rising from 14% to 60%. Not a mention of state liquor laws, lax club administration or poor parenting. So now she has established the fact that the wonderful, socially aware ALP are fixing an insidious act of the evil conservative government that is killing our babies; while we watch her right hand conjuring up this image we fail to notice her left hand dropping a new tax on us. She has come up with a plan to halt binge drinking, a problem amongst kids, that is supposedly rocking the country. I haven’t seen any good stats yet that back that up only anecdotal evidence but lets take it as a given. The plan? Excise has been almost doubled from $39 to $67 per litre for RDT (ready to drink) products with one paper suggesting that will up the price of a bottle by a dollar. Queensland pubs and clubs currently charge, on average, about $8 per bottle but they can range from $5 specials to $12 rip offs. So, there are two factors to consider here. First. The pubs may or may not throw the rise straight back at kids buying RDTs. They could absorb the excise rise elsewhere in the inventory if they feel it to their advantage to keep the premixes cheap. Even if they simply put up costs by a dollar a drink I can’t see that guaranteeing kids will stop buying them. So it may or may not work but based on my experience it won’t work. If price was the determining factor I would have stopped drinking when a pot went from .30 cents to 45 Second and most important. The government will make a couple of billion dollars from the hike.
Defence

ANZAC Day

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My Holy Day of Obligation. I’m back from the Dawn Service at Enoggera Barracks and sadly note that the 500 odd my regiment lost in Vietnam over ten years is less than what my fathers ship, HMAS Sydney, lost in an hour in 1941. (He was taken off the ship and sent to hospital the day before she sailed or there wouldn’t be a Kev!) I will take my Father for a walk through Brisbane shortly, or at least his medals, and then I’ll retire to the Pig and Whistle for a beer with old mates. I feel safe giving the location of the reunion as my other regiment (SASR) also meet there. I doubt any anti-war/soldier type people would be dumb enough to mix it with two line Regiments. Still…could be lucky. Lest we forget
Defence, General Musings

HMAS Sydney found!!!!

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I had written on the Sydney before as my father served on her and only lived to tell the tale (and father me. I might add) due to sickness. The post covers his last two weeks on the Sydney before the Sydney sailed to it’s final battle and he went off to hospital. With a family connection to the ship I have followed the stories about her and the attempts to find her resting place and the grave of 645 Aussie matelots with an avid interest and am so pleased that those NOK who still live will at long last know where their men folk rest. The Finding Sydney website is here and here is a good summary of the action and aftermath. The Courier Mail cover the story as well as most. It has less “Mr Rudd said” quotes than some of the others. I would have rather the announcement was mad by a spokesman of the organization that did all the hard work. UPDATE: Link to the Finding Sydney website with an account of the search and sonar pics. Nary a mention of a press hungry politician – just the facts.
Defence

Fitzgibbon spinning

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HERE’S a hot tip. (from Greg Sheridan) There is not the slightest chance Australia will buy any F-22 Raptor aircraft, and there is almost no chance that we will ditch the F/A-18 Super Hornets that the previous government was going to buy. If the Raptor is not built for export why would anyone think the US would sell it to us. Well, actually people don’t but Fitzgibbon would have us believe it’s on the table so that he can look like he is managing the portfolio and in doing so pointing out how Howard’s government didn’t. The US have already refused to sell it to the Japs and to Howard so in what fairy story does a Republican lead administration change it’s policy for a newly elected Labour government. None that I’ve read lately.
Defence, Politics

Navy set to aid Greenpeace

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Australia’s Chief Clerk KEVIN Rudd yesterday refused to rule out using the Royal Australian Navy to spy on the Japanese whaling fleet and collect evidence for an international court challenge against its annual hunt.
The Rudd Government has already moved to remove legal impediments to any challenge, with cabinet agreeing last week to dump the Howard government’s legal opposition to the move.
What legal opposition is that, Rudd? I think you will find the Howard Government had legal advise that they couldn’t send RAN ships out on the High seas to stop the Japanese pursuing a legal activity. How were they expected to stop them – with bofors or missiles?. Force was the only answer and it isn’t an acceptable answer. According to journalist Mathew Franklin the Howard Government failed;
The Howard administration condemned the hunt. But while it worked hard through the International Whaling Commission to prevent Japanese attempts to overturn the whaling ban, it failed to confront the Japanese fleet in Australian-controlled Antarctic waters.
It didn’t fail. it refused – any action other than keeping a watch on the Japs activities would’ve been subject to International Law. Rudd is well aware that he can’t use force to stop them thus he will have the Navy deployed thousands of miles from home on a watching brief to confirm something we already know. What’s the point of having Navy Photographers record harpooning of whales when the Japs freely admit they are doing it. All this as a sop to the Greenies after Rudd refused to put Australia’s economy on pause at the Bali ‘Green Fest’. The RAN must be rolling their eyes while they run around looking for Arctic weather gear.
Defence, Politics

Chopper crash Digger’s remains found

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A TEAM has found the remains of Australian soldier Lance Corporal John Gillespie, who died in a helicopter crash during the Vietnam war in 1971. Jim Bourke of the the group Operations Aussies Home, said the remains were dug up at a crash site. Gillespie died on April 17, 1971, in the crash of a RAAF Iroquois helicopter in the Long Hai hills of Phuoc Tuy province. From the Australian War Memorial
Lance Corporal John Francis GILLESPIE , 24, of Carnegie, Vic., was serving as a helicopter medic with 8 Field Ambulance. On 17 April 1971, during a “dustoff” (medical evacuation) operation in the Long Hai hills in Phuoc Tuy province, Gillespie’s helicopter was hit by enemy ground fire and crashed. His body could not be recovered from the burning wreckage.
The helicopter burned on impact and it was believed at the time that all human remains had been consumed in the blaze. Mr Bourke said the Vietnamese government had agreed with the assessment of the Australian forensic experts that the remains were those of Gillespie. The remains could be returned to Australia as early as next week, he said. Earlier this year, Mr Bourke’s group found the remains of two other Australian soldiers killed in Vietnam in 1965. The discovery of Gillespie’s remains leave just three other Australians missing in action from the Vietnam conflict. They are;
Private David John Elkington FISHER , 23, was a national serviceman of Balgowlah Heights, NSW. He served with 3 Squadron, SAS. On 27 September 1969 , Fisher was a member of an SAS patrol which had contacts with parties of Viet Cong in south-eastern Long Khanh province, about 30 kilometres northeast of the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat. During a “hot extraction” by helicopter Fisher fell about 30 metres into dense jungle from a rope attached to the helicopter. He was believed killed but searches for six days failed to recover his body.
And two RAAF Officers lost while flying a mission in a Canberra Bomber Pilot Officer Robert Charles CARVER, 24, of Toowoomba, Qld, and Flying Officer Michael Patrick John HERBERT, 24, of Glenelg, SA, both of No. 2 Squadron, RAAF, were both career air force officers. On 3 November 1970 they were believed killed when their Canberra bomber disappeared while flying a night bombing mission in the northern 1 Corps region of South Vietnam. An extensive aerial search of the area failed to find any trace of the aircraft or crew and was called off after three days. Jim Bourke and crew need some recognition for what they have accomplished to date. I trust it is in hand Via 1735099
Defence

VCs stolen

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Eleven Kiwi Victoria Crosses were amongst medals stolen from a Museum in NZ They are going to be very difficult to sell on the market so could well go underground to some collector.
“The fear is there is a very reclusive collector who has had them stolen to order,” Helen Clark told One News’ Breakfast program. “If that’s the case, they won’t show up on the market”.
Not good, stealing history.
Defence
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