One of the many tasks that 2 TP 176 Air Dispatch Sqn were tasked to do whilst deployed in Timor was to move a Baileys bridge to a village called Viqueque (VIKEKI).
The team from 2 Troop during the external lift operations to assist in the bridge building at Viqueque. |
The weather in East Timor had deteriorated and there were many roads and bridges washed away with the heavy rain. One bridge, which had washed away, was on the approach to Viqueque cutting the village off completely as the road from the other approach had been blocked by landslides.
The country supplying the bridge was Bangladesh, so
the first thing that we did was to visit the Bangladesh compound and arrange a recce. This
was called the "RECCE to Viqueque". The Bangladeshis were very
accommodating and raring to go. We flew into Viqueque by Russian helicopter and were then
driven by Thai soldiers in a HUMVEE to the missing bridge.
The bridge had deteriorated more than was suspected and the job suddenly doubled in size.
This seemed no problem to the Bangladesh commander or his men whose enthusiasm for the
task never waned. Meanwhile back at Dili 26 Transport Sqn were busy planning to get the
bridges by road as close as possible to Viqueque. This was at a major airfield called
Baucau where 2 TP already had a small detachment in place.
WO2 Milne, SGT Patterson, CPL Campbell and CPL Foster completed the RECCE. 26 TPT Sqn moved the bridges successfully to Baucau in four days. The Bangladesh Engineers were in place at Viqueque. Therefore we were ready to airlift the bridge by Russian helicopter to enable the people at Viqueque, once again, receive supplies which were so badly needed. The airlift went ahead as planned. The loads were all positioned by forklift on the Monday. Weights were calculated; this was thanks to the Bangladesh engineers knowing the weight of each item down to the last bolt.
All the Aerial Delivery Equipment (ADE) was determined for each load. As there was limited ADE it was decided to place an air dispatch crew with the Bangladesh Engineers at Viqueque. The best people we decided to send were CPL Foster and his motley crew, which included CPL Norm Wiegold. The stores once airlifted into position would be de-rigged and the ADE would be carried across the river and driven to the village soccer field. Once there it would be picked up by helicopter and airlifted back to Baucau for reconditioning and used for further airlifts.
Well done to the Bangladesh soldiers who had to manhandle the ADE across the river which, when I saw it last, was a raging torrent. This was to be the last major airlift to be completed by 2TP. The bridge at Viqueque, constructed by the Bangladesh, was a success. They constructed two bridges both spanning 100 feet giving the locals a dual lane highway. The external lift phase took three days, and using the Russian MI8 helicopter we moved 50000kg (110250lbs) of stores.
Thanks to 26 TPT Sqn, 176 Air Dispatch Sqn, Bangladesh Engineers and Thai infantry it was a job well done to SGT Paterson, who was to remain in East Timor to help raise the Force Logistic Squadron (FLS), had received word that another bridge at Gomhaci had been washed away. Again the only way to move the stores was by external lift. But then again, there is always another bridge somewhere…….
