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Old 1st Jan 2021, 00:44
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Ascend Charlie
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,380
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Dunno, Megan, I had left by then. It seemed that over 80% of our tasking had been army support. The RAAF put a reasonable emphasis on crew rest, which was why the aircrew stayed in hotels in Rocky instead of being in the exercise area. Protests from the brown guys led to us being in tents on the airfield, and further protests resulted in the aircrew being in the army camp in Shoalwater Bay.

With night ops becoming more prominent and the advent of NVGs, the lads were expected to "sleep" during the hot days in tents in the middle of a busy army camp, and still be alert for the night flights. One result of that was the fatal crash into the hill in SA at night on return to the camp.

A year or two later, the army took control of the choppers, not long after the Blackhawks arrived.
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