Author: Kev

Retired infantry officer. Conservative by nature and politics; Happily married and father and grandfather of eight. Loves V8 powered Range Rovers, Golden Retrievers, good books and technology and think there should be open season on Greenies. Born in the mid forties and overdue for servicing but most parts still work.

I’ve been bush again

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Arguably the drought has broken – I know because I was intimately involved. As I lay sleeping in my tent at Carnarvon Gorge I heard an express train come up the valley. After gaining full consciousness the train became a gale that heralded a wet arse. With 20 plus Grade 10 boys high up a peak we were somewhat concerned and started plans to pull out before road conditions locked us in for a week or two.

We packed and left about 2.00 pm, drove through the day and got home midnight yesterday. 800 km of drought breaking rain No boys lost, hopefully no influenza cases and all home with their mothers fussing over them.

Having bad memories of striking camp with several hundred reserve soldiers under canvas it was always a Cadre officers nightmare that the event was preceded by rain. This necessitated pulling all stores back to barracks and then re-erecting all the tents and waiting for the weather to clear and dry them before we could hand them back.

deje vu again.

Today, the cleanup…maybe not, it’s still raining and little point in it…..could be dry in the bar though.

General Musings

Now we’re sure it’s not the Sydney

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Received this email from Defence Media

NAVY FINDS NO EVIDENCE THAT WRECK IS THAT OF HMAS SYDNEY II

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has concluded its investigation of the area located near Dirk Hartog Island in Western Australia that was claimed to be the site of the wreck of the RAN’s World War II cruiser, HMAS Sydney II.

The Navy Hydrographic survey ship HMAS Leeuwin was diverted from surveying duties earlier in the week and arrived in the area early on Friday morning, 17 August 2007.

The ship examined the prime location of interest with its high definition multi-beam and towed side scan sonar equipment. That work is now complete.

The Leeuwin detected a relatively small wreck that had none of the characteristics normally associated with that of a warship, particularly one the size of Sydney II.

The Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence Bruce Billson said today: “The wreck reportedly detected by the Leeuwin was about 30 metres in length and lacked the overall dimensions and features of a military vessel of the scale of the Sydney.

“The Leeuwin also examined a one-mile radius around the wreck site and found no evidence of additional wreckage or features of interest.”

The locations examined were based on coordinates provided by the Western Australian Maritime Museum, representatives of the amateur research group, which made the initial claims, and other third parties of goodwill.

Data from the investigation will now be sent to the WA Maritime Museum for further analysis. Mr Billson said he welcomed advice that the research group would also provide any imagery or other information it gathered from the wreck site.

“While all the evidence gathered points to what this wreck is not, further analysis by the museum may enable it to formally identify what it actually is,” he said.

“The Howard Government considers solving the mystery of the Sydney II an issue of national importance, particularly to bring closure for relatives of the 645 crew members who died while bravely serving their country.”

Never mind…the media has at least raised public awareness of the ship and her sad demise.

General Musings

‘We’re sure it’s the wreck of the Sydney’

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HMAS Sydney

Picture: HMAS Sydney

This report from the West Australian

The 66-year search for the wreck of HMAS Sydney on which 645 Australians lost their lives is almost certainly over.

A group of West Australians using just a grappling hook and an underwater camera last weekend found what they are sure is the Sydney, which sank after a battle with the German raider Kormoran on November 19, 1941.

Sydney was also the largest vessel of any country to be lost with no survivors during the war.

The 645 Australian’s are all shipmates of my father who was hospitalized whilst stationed on the Sydney. He and another shipmate were sent to Flinders Naval Hospital on the day prior to the Sydney sailing to it’s fatal appointment with the German raider ‘Kormoran’.

My very existence is thus based on the stroke of the ship’s Medical Officer’s pen as I was born after the war.

If it is the Sydney, then a 66 year old mystery can be cleared up and many a family can hope for closure on the death of their loved ones. It will, of course, be declared a war grave but cameras should give sufficient images to help us understand how a capital ship was clobbered by a merchant raider.

Just pause for a moment and think of the last minutes of those 645 Australians. Fathers, brothers, lovers, sons….dreams, aspirations, hopes…. all extinguished in a short 150 metre descent to the seabed.

Horror, terror, screams, cries, prayers….silence

Defence

Election stunts everywhere

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PM’s letter to Iraq is an election stunt says Kevin Rudd in an election stunt type of statement

PRIME Minister John Howard’s threat to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq is motivated by the looming federal election, Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd says

And Kevin’s statement isn’t?

Right.

Meanwhile…..a story covered by Brisbane’s Sunday Mail records another election stunt

A LEAKED letter from Kevin Rudd to Prime Minister John Howard shows the Opposition Leader backed Australia’s involvement in Iraq in the aftermath of the invasion.

And typical of Kevin, it’s full of recommendations that apparently no one else thought of

These include:

• “An immediate review of protective security arrangements for all Australian staff in Iraq”.

• “Deploying an appropriate number of trainers for capacity enhancement of the New Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police Force.”

• Public employment measures to soak up the idleness of young men from joining terrorist groups.

• Using the Australian Electoral Commission to help Iraq stage elections.

• A smooth transition of the Oil for Food program to ensure Iraqis had proper food and medical supplies.

All of these measures were eventually adopted.

Admittedly Kevin has to calm and pay back the Left in his party with regular anti Bush/Howard/US policy statements but just what do Kevin and the ALP stand for again?

Politics

Soldiers’ binge OK: Howard

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Correct response.

It happened in my time as well. I have been involved in excessive consumption of alcohol for a number of reasons – some reasonable some not. Sometimes to bury a ghost, other times in the spirit of the moment.

The difference?

We never had YouTube and the stupid inclination to brag about it, and

The Media didn’t hang around waiting for us to prove we were human and then make it front page headlines.

Look at the politically incorrect soldiers…see how they misbehave.

My thoughts:

Look at the selective reporting media….see how they emphasize negatives.

Guys, don’t film your escapades – it’s stupid and we don’t want to read about it or see it.

A soldier involved in the party explains why one of them appeared covered in a sheet, the image that brought screams of KKK from the media.

A former soldier who appears in a video of Australian troops binge drinking, with one apparently dressed as a Ku Klux Klansman, says the footage was a bucks party prank, not a racial slur.

“We had a surprise made up for him so we went and pretty much kidnapped him and we needed a costume so he couldn’t find out who it was.

“The cheapest way to do it was to put a bedsheet over our heads. It wasn’t in any racial terms.”

Seems reasonable to me.

Defence

Army recruiting ad

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THE Department of Defence has scrapped recruitment advertisements criticised for their alluring content.
In one of the advertisements for the Royal Australian Army Dental Corps, the modern woman digger is depicted as a buxom , full-lipped wonderwoman wearing a tight-fitting white nursing outfit.

Unfortunately, many women in the military did not believe the “you” as depicted even existed and believed the posters sent inappropriate signals.

One senior air force officer was appalled by the portrayal.

“I think they are woeful and say a lot about how army males see the world,” she said.

She’s most probably right but I don’t see her point

If any kind hearted digger would like to send me a copy of the Dental Assistant (in a plain brown wrapper, of course) I would gladly display on the wall of my bar. Not as a gratuitous pin-up (I’m married with three daughters) but as a memorial to ‘Political Incorrectness”

In the meantime, where do I sign up? I can feel a toothache coming on.

General Musings

Haneef’s gone

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One of Haneef’s ‘fan’ club, a human rights advocate, ponders;

You know, I hope Kev will say: “That really sucked what happened to Haneef, poor bastard.” It would be nice to read this.

I replied;

Don’t hold your breath. He is too close to savages that tried to mass murder Brits. We are better off with him out of Australia.

..and I’m sticking to my guns.

Haneef’s guilt or otherwise on charges of recklessly giving aid to terrorists has not been tested in court so cries of ‘innocent victim’ make little sense. The fact that his working visa has been withdrawn does, however make a lot of sense.

He is a known associate of people who attempted to murder Brits and Scots in their homeland and that’s enough to make him persona non grata; whether he’s all sweetness and light, pure as the driven snow or a contender for a Nobel prize for medicine he is still a worry.

Today in the Australian Imre Salusinszky argues;

I DON’T know what facts swayed Kevin Andrews in his decision to revoke the visa of Mohamed Haneef. But there are more than enough already on the public record to justify the Immigration Minister’s decision.

Take the politics out of the situation, assess it coldly and Hannef goes home and stays there.

Side issue: I hope Legal Aid isn’t paying for Russo’s ‘Tour of Adulation’ in India.

Politics

Rudd forgets as well

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Mr Rudd, campaigning in Tasmania, incorrectly named Labor’s candidate for the vital marginal seat of Bass as Jodie Kingston.The candidate’s name is Jodie Campbell.

I expect the ABC news, Lateline, the 7:30 report, SBS, the Age, the SMH and all those left wing/anti-Howard blogs will be calling into question Rudd’s ability to lead; that he’s past it – too old, as happened when Howard did the same.

Politics

Amazing!

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From the India Times
BANGALORE: Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef has been at the receiving end of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) treatment for the last 21 days. However on Monday, he chose to bail out the AFP which was facing an embarrassing allegation of tampering his personal diary.

Haneef told his cousin Imran Siddiqui and his lawyers that news reports were false and AFP officers had not done anything like that. The media had reported that the officers wrote the name and contact details of alleged suicide bomber Kafeel Ahmed in Haneef’s diary and later quizzed him during an interview. The incident occurred soon after Haneef was arrested at the Brisbane International Airport on July 2. The reports even said Haneef had replied that it was not his handwriting. “I spoke to him today. He said it was speculation. He told me he himself had written the address of his cousin,” Imran who is in Australia to help Haneef, told TOI.

I just know that the Australian media are currently writing retractions and an apology to Keelty…I just know it!

Presuming the report is accurate one might well ask “What else have the media misinterpreted in their rush to make the AFP and Howard look bad?”

War on Terror

Drone makes its mark

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INSURGENTS TERRORISTS firing rockets at a British base in southern Iraq were spotted and tracked by an Australian unmanned spyplane, then obliterated with a guided bomb from a US fighter jet.

In a stunning demonstration of the capabilities of the new ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicle, the Australian operators tracked the insurgents for half an hour as they fired one rocket then drove to a different location to fire another.

They were not aware they had been spotted until a 227kg JDAM guided bomb exploded in their midst.

The images from May 1, recorded from an altitude of about a kilometre, show men from three vehicles hastily setting up a rocket launcher then firing at one of the British bases.

The camera follows as the men hop back in their vehicles and drive away, stopping some distance away to take another shot. The live images were also viewed in the British headquarters where frantic efforts were being made to retaliate.

That came in the form of a US F-16 jet, which sent a GPS-guided bomb into the insurgents’ position.

Good one, guys.

Defence, War on Terror
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