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A day of typical air operations would start at 6am, when we would begin our morning routine.
Once this was finished we would fill out the mail and stores movement forms that were required for the day. Next we would take a visit to the airforce contingent at the terminal to find out the schedule for the aircraft for that day.
At approximately 0845 h the first aircraft
would arrive from Darwin. The airforce load teams would move out to unload and back-load
the aircraft and we would pick up the unloaded stores from the edge of the tarmac. From
here we would sort and then deliver the items we received through the freight terminal. We
sometimes received urgent medical consignments that we had to identify and deliver
straight away.
The delivery runs would normally finish at about 1130 h where we would go and have lunch
at the airforce kitchen.
 The rear of the accommodation at "Red Rat HQ", Komoro Airfield. |
 The AD's accn at the freight terminal. |
 Unloading of a C-130 at Komoro |
After lunch the end of shift report would be commenced and we would then travel to the port to receive orders. At 1545 h the second aircraft would arrive and the same thing with the first aircraft would happen. At 1630 h the second delivery run would finish and we would begin to end the day by counting the mail and stores we had received during the day. We also had a picquet every night which involved manning the front vehicle checkpoint for about two hours. Along with the normal day to day tasks we would also receive some external task.
Some of these tasks were moving items for the hospital or unloading vehicles that were near us and could not be handled by the airforce teams. As well, we had to support many nations which fell under the UN and also helped in the food relief effort due to the closure in roads to Suai and many other locations.
The accommodation we lived in was a single building with two roof coverings to store the consignments under out of the weather. We slept two to a room, which made it quite cramped at times. At night to relax we would play cards, read, talk, play volleyball or watch television. We purchased a television and video in Darwin which we had sent to us along with videos. We would also swap some videos with the airforce. The manning at the freight terminal was on a rotation of one week in every three - to give us a break from the port operations.
My time spent there was very enjoyable and I did not want to leave, but overall I could not wait to come home and see my family and live a normal life again.
