This story and
its photographs are the copyright of the Australian Department of Defence. Permission to
reproduce may be sought from the Editor, Army Newspaper Unit by contacting armynews@defencenews.gov.au
This story was filed
by Cpl Brian Hartigan from Dili, East Timor and published in ARMY Magazine in March 2000
as a side bar to the story -- TIMOR: Terror and brutality fail
Termites keep supplies flowing
With INTERFET peaking at a total force strength
of roughly 11,500 personnel, the logistics systems and practices of Australia’s 10FSB
were stretched, in some areas, almost to breaking point. But the soldiers of the force
support battalion were more than up to the challenge of delivering massive quantities of
stores to the soldiers in the field.
CO 10FSB Lt-Col Michael Kehoe says he has
nothing but praise for the soldiers in every section under his command but that some areas
were worthy of note. "For example the terminal operator trade, which has shrunk over
the years, had gone four years since they last unloaded a hatched ship," he says.
"Since we came here we have unloaded something in the order
of 115 hatched ships, which is an incredible feat for those guys. On the postal side our
biggest day was when we had 32 tonnes of mail arrive at once and that, by any count, is
larger than anything we ever coped with in Vietnam, where we had one or even two postal
platoons. Here we did a terrific job with just five people."
He says that while there is no doubt some units have been
frustrated in sourcing particular items, the supply system had never approached a point
where the commander’s planning or options had been restricted through the failure of
logistics.
The vital statistics
|
|
Road freight transported
|
14,000t
|
Fuel transported
|
6,000,000l
|
Sewerage collected
|
4,500,000l
|
Rubbish skips emptied
|
3500
|
Mail received
|
500,000kg
|
Mail sent
|
90,000kg
|
Hard rations on hand
|
80,000 units
|
Bottled water on hand
|
1,000,0000l
|
Avtur on hand
|
350,000l
|
Diesel on hand
|
300,000l
|