I was thrilled to receive this lovely note from Colonel David Connery PhD of the Australian Army History Unit.

"Diggers dan Serdadu (Indonesian colloquialism for soldiers)" is an exquisitely detailed history of our two armies and their increasing cooperation and interoperation.

With the threat from China our relationship with Indonesia is more important than ever.

I commend 'Diggers dan Serdadu' to you.

Here is some of the background to the work that went into the book.

Media outlets smearing the Australian Defence Force with false claims of involvement in genocide

Sunday, 27 October 2013

A small and identifiable group of Aussie servicemen is entitled to wear the Australian Service Medal with clasp "Irian Jaya" for service on Operation CENDERAWASIH in Irian Jaya during 1976-1981.

One man was killed during operations and many wounded.

Last week the Hong Kong based Asian Human Rights Watch released this report:

http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/books/NEGLECTED-GENOCIDE

As a result of that single-source and inaccurate report, much of Australia's loyal media has been happy to verbal our nation and troops with horrible smears like the ones below.

We didn't just lend Indonesia military assets like helicopters.   We had flight crew, SASR troops, Royal Australian Survey Corp diggers and others deployed in Irian Jaya for various periods.

Our aircraft were flown by our people.   I can only imagine how I would feel if I woke up to a false smear like the reports below from the past week in Fairfax, Guardian, SBS and ABC outlets.

It's a very low act.

ENDS

Our reader, PeterR was there.   And he wants to set the record straight.  

I've now researched this myself and so I feel it's a great privilege for me that PeterR has chosen our website to tell his story and to honour the late Flight Lieutenant Ralph Taylor, killed during flight operations in Irian Jaya 29th July, 1977.  

Lest we forget.

Here's PeterR.

 

This is absolutely false and it is not supported anywhere in the AHRC report which simply refers to the fact that Australian helicopters were operating in Irian Jaya at the time.  They were not armed and were never involved in any attacks.

 

In 2002, all participants in Operation Cenderawasih were awarded the Australian Service Medal with clasp “Irian Jaya” (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No. S 64, 28 February 2002) in recognition of the difficulties and danger involved in the operation. (Note: we did not carry any weapons during the operation)

 

Now, for the record, here's what happened.

 

The ABC to its credit has now reported that the Australian Defence Force has strongly repudiated any claim that we were involved in attacking innocent civilians.    Here's a link.

A couple of extra contributions to the ADF Irian Jaya Operation story from people who know

I received a lovely note from PeterR today thanking us all for the response to his story this morning about Operation CENDERAWASIH (which I found out means Bird of Paradise).

First up here's the Commonwealth Gazette setting out the dates of the operation and the award of medals.

 

I also received a note from reader Col, who sent this photo of the crash scene and the downed chopper.  I found the scale a bit deceptive at first, until I focussed on the group of locals at the bottom left of frame.

Hi Michael,

 

Just for your info, being an ex RAAF C130 Loadmaster I know the Crewman referred to in the Irian Jaya UH1 crash in 1977, he converted from Helicopter Crewman to Hercules C130 Loadmaster after his helicopter crash rehabilitation.

 

The ACT Newsletter refers to him as LAC Peter Sinclair, in fact his name is Patrick “Paddy” Sinclair.

 

The story is covered in AirForce History:

1.       On this day in Air Force history: 19770729 29/07/1977 Fatal helicopter crash in West Irian

During Operation Cenderawasih (Bird of Paradise) in Western New Guinea (or Irian Jaya, Indonesia), two UH-1 Iroquois helicopters of No 9 Squadron, RAAF, were sent on this day from Wamena to convey an Australian Army party engaged in geodetic survey work to an airstrip across the mountains. Heavy cloud caused the mission to be aborted, and the two aircraft were returning to base when machine A2-379 went missing with five personnel on board. The lost aircraft was located early the next day in a moss forest at an altitude of 10 000 feet (3000 metres). Two Army personnel were winched 60 metres through the jungle canopy to the wreck below and found that, apart from the pilot, all on board had survived though three were seriously injured. A Special Air Service patrol team from Darwin was inserted to protect the wreck while recovery operations were carried out over the next week.

 

The attached photo is the crash position of the Iroquois.

 

I have forwarded the link to Paddy, if he wishes to make factual comment via your web blog.

 

 

Best Regards,

                           Col

 

ENDS

 

Col, Peter, Paddy, the late Flight Lieutenant Ralph Taylor and all the others who served in West Irian are real people.   The Defence Force is made up of real people.   It's not an amorphous abstract institution that exists to cop flack from lefty journalists who feel it's their duty to break down the military.

 

The slur of involvement in the slaughter of local villagers in Irian Jaya is just an unspeakable and vile thing to throw at people.   So glad we've had a role in putting the truth forward.

 

To all those who wear the Australian Service Medal with clasp "Irian Jaya", thank you for your service.

As the chopper crashed the rotor chopped the foliage I thought "this is what an ant must feel like" when I mowed the lawn.

 

When I was in the army, 1978 to 1986 I felt the odd incident of prejudiced thinking from "educated professionals" who had preconceived ideas about dumb grunts.   Some of it was subtle "well you speak well for someone in the army" and some not subtle at all, like the paint chucking black-clad Women Against Rape who attacked Anzac Day marches back then.

But no one ever accused me of having a role in murder or genocide.

Your ABC, SBS, Fairfax press and The Guardian had no qualms a week or so ago in making a link between Australian Defence Force helicopters and mass murder, indeed genocide, against people who lived in Irian Jaya in the 1970s.

They ran bulltish headlines like this:

Those stories were based on an uncritical analysis of this report - and it is wrong.

The relevant bit of the report that tips Australia into the reported atrocities is in this page and a couple of others with similar levels of scant detail.

Last week we featured PeterR's story - he was an Australian Army Officer deployed to Irian Jaya.   Peter and others including C130 loadmaster Col Coyne got in touch with me to set the record straight in no uncertain fashion and to give it to the media mob that so slurred their work.

Col put me in touch with another bloke, Paddy Sinclair who transitioned from his job on board helicopters to a fixed wing loadmaster job in C130s after the crash of one of those helicopters, A2-379.

Paddy's first note to me was a couple of days ago:

 

 

 

 

CRASH A2-379 29July 1977 IRIAN JAYA

OPERATION CENDERAWASIH 1977 

I am Patrick (Paddy) Sinclair, the last surviving crew member from the fatal crash of A2-379.

I think the co-pilot is the last remaining crew member of A2-149.

Below are some of my recollections from  the 29July1977:-

It had been planned that A2-149 was to do both sorties as A2-379 was getting short on service hours, but after consultation with the missionary pilots it was decided ,because of imminent bad weather, that both aircraft would be used.  We then proceeded to load 379. 

As the winch was  on the left hand side all the cargo was stowed on the RHS behind the pilot and in the Lhs quarter compartment.  The left hand outer and inner seats and the centre seat were used for myself and the two pax

Both aircraft were at the upper limits for weight on takeoff from Wamena and we were not travelling fast when we went across the saddle into cloud and did the 180 to get out of it. We lost speed in that turn and then we saw 149 in front of us we kicked off again.  That’s when all the bells and whistles started going off up front.

When we started settling into the trees I was looking out the LHS  window, after having the two pax adopt the crash position. I had just finished reading a letter from home which had arrived the day before, and I thought  “ This is what an ant must feel like”, when Im mowing the grass. The rotor was chopping the foliage and smaller branches and shooting it out like a mower.  Then the branch came through the floor on the left hand side, flipping us upside down and into the ground.  This branch was the one that caused me my injuries.

Once I had gathered my thoughts in the aftermath of the crash I pulled the cargo door window and then got the two pax out and down the skid , both were ambulatory at the time, an away from the aircraft.  I attempted to get Greg Cashmere out of the seat but he was lying on the ground and as I bent over my fractured pelvis dislocated and I fell over and crawled away. The Army pax removed Greg.  I was then unable to go up the skid and disconnect the fuel line.  The engine convulsed for over an hour.

We tried calling on PRC90 but couldn’t get through. We then had the army guy get the F1 HF set from the wreck.  We dialled in frequencies from the acft and started calling and due to frequency skip ended up talking with the SAS on exercise in central Australia.  Apparently they notified the relevant authorities. The SAS were taken to Darwin and then flown to Wamena by C130A .

On the 30July the caribou flew over but we couldn’t see it from the ground. A flare rocket distress  was fired and from this they were able to direct A2-149 to the wreck site.

After the rescue party reached us we were winched out by stokes litter and taken to Wamena for preliminary surgery before being flown back to Royal Brisbane hospital for further surgery and treatment.

The rest of the story is history and in the following report.  I hope this aids the history of A2-379

Paddy Sinclair

Crewman A2-379

A helicopter entering a cleared landing zone in the jungle.

Special Air Service Regiment troopers remove all avionics and other equipment prior to laying demolition charges.

No longer in working order Sir.

UPDATE - this email just arrived - how good is the Australian Defence Community?

 

ENDS

Very proud day today.

Lest We Forget.