By Captain Adam Watson
In East Timor, the phrase "I’ve got a bit on" became more like an anthem than a simple statement.
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The 176 AD Sqn operations cell began the deployment with a steep learning curve. The pace of operations was fast and as usual all of the jobs had to be done yesterday or before.\
At first there was WO2 Greg McIntosh, WO2 Rick Tassell, SGT Bruce Paterson and myself coming to grips with the role and tasks that the unit had taken on. WO2 McIntosh aided this induction, as he had spent considerable time in the 30/35 WTTS operations cell. This expertise made him the logical choice for the task of cell 2IC. His calm demeanour and logical mind were only out shone by the amount of mail he would receive from his better half on a daily basis.
WO2 Jim Prien, WO2 Peter Russell and SGT Scott Robey soon joined us. This provided us with an interesting mix of RACT representatives and personalities. The ensuing debates usually centred on trade superiority or technicality. These discussions inevitably resulted in some rather unconventional means of conflict resolution. Termite versus Air Dispatcher, Workcover Assessor versus Iso 9002, WO2 Russell versus WO2 Prien, SGT Robey versus SGT Paterson, while WO2 McIntosh (road), WO2 Tassell (water) and I (neutral of course, well a little partial to the superior trade of AD), looked on with amusement. Suffice to say WO2 Russell usually had the last say about things with his own special means of persuasion, ie. "Don’t go anywhere, I’m coming down"!
WO2 McIntosh was first to leave the cell at about one month in to the unit’s deployment. WO2 Prien then filled the position of cell 2IC and remained steadfast regardless of verbal or physical banter. He was constantly offered the advice from the locals (and WO2 Russell) ‘20 years go’, which much to my benefit he ignored. We then unfortunately lost WO2 Tassell to 3 DS Tp, which meant that he could spend even more time with his beloved boats. WO2 Russell entered the unit spectacularly and commenced trade testing just about all of 2 AD Tp, thus improving the unit’s capability considerably.
We also had one other irreplaceable member of the
operations cell who the OC borrowed on occasion, PTE Steve Neal. Of course the OC thought
that PTE Neal worked for him, but what he does not know…
SGT Robey provided us with considerable and invaluable expertise from his time at the troop level and despite what people say he did do some time in the cell between his leave, trips to Suai, trips to Batagude and his day dreaming about ‘his’ ship the HMAS Tobruk. SGT Paterson quickly built himself a mezzanine level in the accommodation building, which earned him the honorary carpenter status that plagued him for his entire tour of duty. Meanwhile tasking remained frantic with much of the poor planning on other’s behalf hitting the unit rather hard.
Credit goes to the diggers who under arduous circumstances motivated themselves and executed the tasking; thereby ensuring that UNTAET progressed. My personal thanks and respect goes the men mentioned above and their families for the support provided back home.