By Corporal Joe Campbell
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Deployment on active service to East Timor
commenced, for me, on 18 February 2000. Air Dispatchers from 2 Troop were sent to work the
Dili Port as Terminal Operators.
But this was only one of the jobs we were given to do.
2 Troop, at this stage, were also handling a number of external lift tasks in various
parts of East Timor. The helicopters that the troop were using were the Chilean Pumas and
a number of Russian MI-8s and, on the odd occasion, an Australian Blackhawk.
The Chilean helicopters were located just across the road from where we lived, at the
heliport. This was an old airstrip now used by the Portugese, Chilean and Australian
contingent's helicopters. The Australian Blackhawks were mainly being used at this point
for casevac. The Russian MI-8s were being operated out of Comoro airfield due to their
large size.
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On March 2, I was tasked to fly down to
Oecussi, a small town in an enclave in West Timor. The enclave itself belongs to East
Timor because it's where the Portugese first landed hundreds of years ago. It was here
that I took over the role of External Lift Task Commander.
The flying time from Dili to Oecussi is about 50 minutes. The route used is from Dili
straight down to Licquica then 45 kilometres out to sea then down to Oecussi.
This is so we don't enter West Timorese airspace.
In Oecussi there is a grassed airstrip that can be used by helicopters and Caribou's. It
was also used for most of the external hook-ups. The United Nations country that was
operating in the area was Jordan, which had taken over from the 3rd Battalion, The Royal
Australian Regiment. Almost all of the external lift sorties in this region were carried
out for the Jordanian Battalion. A number of other lifts were carried out for other
agencies such as the UN civilian police, UN Military Observers and other civilian and
Non-Government Organisations.
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Most Oecussi external lift tasks were
conducted on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Sometimes these were extended to include
other days of the week. All tasks were commenced at 0600h and were normally completed by
1500h, unless there was a specific job that required extra flying hours.
The average flying time per task order for the day was six and a half hours. This was
often extended due to bad weather conditions, refueling stops and the level of security at
the final destinations for resupply and delivery of equipment.
The Jordanians used these daily tasks to resupply and transport equipment to their troops
who were located at designated areas on the East / West Timor border.
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The resupply was normally rations consisting
of both ration packs and fresh food.
The equipment that members of the troop transported by helicopter included Hummers,
Landrover Discoveries, ISO Containers, Tank-tainers, generators, fuel and water.
The two helicopters used had very different lift capabilities. The Chilean Puma could lift
up to 2.4 tons while the Russian MI-8 could manage over 3.5 tons. So a certain amount of
prior planning was needed so that the right helicopter could be flown down to complete
both the resupply and external lift of heavy equipment. Normally the daily resupply was
done using both internal and external means.
 The interior of the Russian MI-8 helicopter. |
 A wide variety of aircraft were used during the operations in Oecussi. Here an MI-8 is prepared for the external lift of a Civpol Landrover Discovery. |
Aerial delivery equipment was used for
lifting equipment and supplies were stored at the aircraft refueling point in Oecussi.
This was on the beach approximately 5 mins from the airstrip. All lifts were carried out
using standard ADE. This included slings, straps, chains, nets and heavy duty swivel
hooks.
All external lifts involved Air Dispatchers and on the odd occasion, members of other
trades and corps. The total amount of supplies and equipment lifted in Oecussi during the
four months of the task exceeded 240,000 pounds. As External Lift Task Commander I
acquired a total of 289 flying hours in the four months of operations.
The experience gained by the Air Dispatchers who worked in the Oecussi operation was
invaluable and will benefit not only themselves but also the entire Air Dispatch trade.
