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Gallipoli Barracks Christmas Bar-B-Q.

Back on Sunday the 23^rd November, Gallipoli Barracks (Brisbane) held their annual Family Christmas Bar-B-Q. These are sponsored by the Army with help from 3 local sub-branch RSL clubs, (Kedron Wavell, Gaythorne and Greenbank) the Salvation Army and the local Community Centre all of which provide personnel, ample food and drink and entertainment for the kids.

Some of those who attended include:

Terri and husband Jeff brought their little green Tojo loaded with lots of goodies for the kids, including a huge cold drink container chock full of iced-cold red cordial – everyone’s favourite.

The Salvation Army Red Shield Defence Services (RSDS) has been serving Australia’s Defence Forces for over 110 years. RSDS work began when Salvation Army Staff Captain Mary Murray was appointed to the South African Boer War in November 1899. The first Sally hut on a field of battle was put up during the Boer War in February 1900. This began the tradition of support in theatres of war involving Australians during the 20^th Century and beyond, and anyone who has been in a conflict knows and appreciates the excellent work they do.

During WW2, Red Shield Officers established their famous “Hop-In” centres at war zones from Tobruk to the Kokoda trail, providing on the spot comforts and a home away from home for soldiers. The centres ranged from large marquees in major areas to small tents, all displaying the familiar “Hop-In You’re Welcome” signs.

The Korean and Vietnam Wars through the 1950’s to the 1970’s again took Australian troops into active service and the Salvo’s Hop-In Centres helped keep up morale.

Today the RSDS still maintains a close relationship with troops on Barracks, in the field and on deployment with both Australian and UN missions. They are equipped with a fleet of 4WD vehicles and are able to bring practical support to soldiers in the field, including their famous cold “jube juice” (red cordial) hot drinks, biscuits, sweets, chewing gum, magazines and a listening ear. Their Hop-In centres are now equipped with TV’s, DVD players, video games, table tennis, pool tables and some computers with internet access. Today’s Hop-In centres provide somewhere that soldiers can relax in an alcohol free environment.

You can see more info on the RSDS HERE.

Just a small part of the happy crowd that went along and enjoyed themselves.

And this is one of the reasons they came.

These 3 blokes, all members of the Gaythorne RSL, which just about adjoins the Barracks grounds, spent hours cooking hundreds of snags for the troops, they might have taken an hour or so to cook, but they disappeared in minutes once the gongs were sounded.

But the real reason was to see Santa – and to get a present.

Pretty little Ava Zammit couldn’t look happier if she tried than when she got to sit on Santa’s knee and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. We hope Santa, aptly played by Noel Brown from Greenslopes RSL, was taking notes and will deliver in spades on the 25^th.

And what do they say??

A woman’s work!!!  After the men had finished cooking, and made the usual man mess, as men do (which they never see), the poor ladies had to move in and make the place ship shape once again.

Community Centre Volunteers.

These four lovely ladies work at the Barracks Community Centre, as volunteers, and spend their day looking after other people’s kids, organising play groups and providing general support for young families. They gave up their Sunday to ‘man’ a table selling soft drinks and other items to raise funds for the Community Centre.

How would Australia operate without selfless volunteers such as these girls.

Graham is the 7^th Brigade Welfare Officer and we wonder whether people appreciate the amount of work this bloke does. His job requires him to give up a lot of his weekends and spare time to organize events such as this – a fact that probably goes un-noticed by a lot of people. He deserves a big thank you!!!

Right, Andrew and Vanessa Kelly with their two beautiful girls, Clare and Athena, who surely appreciated the work done by Graham.

The kids had a great time, tucking into all the goodies, placing an order with Santa and taking home lots of little treats.

Andrew is in the Medical branch with the Army.

I’ll be good Santa.

Someone else who made sure she got onto Santa’s knee to put in her “wants” for Christmas was Helen McLaren – and although we don’t know what she as hoping for, it sure made Santa smile, so we can only guess.

Dave and Belinda are both serving members, Dave is in the Ordinance branch and Belinda is one of those people you get to know as soon as you arrive on base (apart from pay section people) – she is a cook.

Coincidence??

Now here’s a co-incidence – or is it???    No sooner had Helen left Santa’s knee after making her silent wish, than Major Graham was there, also putting in his order for Christmas Day. We weren’t close enough to hear the wish but it too sure tickled Santa’s fancy, and is that a blush??   Interesting??

Some of the little ones who got into Santa’s ear.

And what would a kids’ Christmas Party be without a train…..

Although there wasn’t a huge number there for the day, those that did make it had a great time.

The Army is good at that stuff!!!

Was the C-27 a good buy??

The Alenia C-27J Spartan has been chosen by the RAAF to replace the old Caribou which was finally retired from service in 2009. It is planned that 35 Squadron will receive the first of its order of 10 aircraft in 2015, initially to Richmond but later the Sqn will be relocated to the RAAF’s new super base, Amberley.

The C-27 is a derivative of Alenia Aeronautica’s G.222 aircraft. In 1995 Alena of Italy and Lockheed Martin began discussions in fitting new engines and a glass cockpit, based on the C130J, to the G.222. The resultant aircraft, now the C-27J, had an increase in range of 35% and a 15% faster cruise speed over the old G.222. It seemed they were on a winner.

In 2005, the US Army decided it needed a replacement for its aging fleet of 40 Shorts C-23 Sherpas. They called for expressions of interest from aircraft manufacturers to provide a replacement but by then Lockheed Martin and Alenia had parted company and Alenia had formed another JV with L-3 Communications which they called Global Military Aircraft Systems (GMAS). GMAS proposed the C-27 to the US Army as did Lockheed which put up the C-130J and Raytheon which put up the Airbus C-295. The USAF had also joined the party looking for aircraft and between them there was a need of 100 new aircraft.

In 2007 the Pentagon awarded the tender to GMAS and a contract worth US$2.04B was signed, 75 C-27 aircraft were ordered for the National Guard (Army) and 70 for the USAF. The aircraft started arriving in June 2008 but then things started to go a bit wrong.

By April 2009, when the US Army had received its second aircraft with 11 more expected in the near future, it was decided that the two in service and all future aircraft would go to the US Air Force and the order would be reduced to 38 aircraft. Then in 2012, the USAF decided to cancel the order all together and the missions planned for the C-27’s were to be undertaken by the C-130J’s. It was also decided to move all its C-27J aircraft to the Davis-Monthan Air Force boneyard.

Australia’s 10 aircraft, which were ordered in May 2012, are still in the pipeline. The plan was to have them built in Italy then fly them to Waco in Texas for systems integration and bring them up to Joint Cargo Aircraft configuration. Initial logistic support, including training for aircrew and maintenance personnel was to be provided through the Flight Management System (FMS) program, utilising the system that had been established in the US. But, with the US aircraft now in the boneyard (there is talk they will be brought back on line and flown by the US Coast Guard) who is going to mod the aircraft and train the Australian air and maintenance crews?

In September this year, L3, a prime contractor in aerospace systems and national security solutions in the US was granted a contract to provide RAAF personnel with aircrew and maintenance training. It has also been awarded a contract to provide spares warehousing, packing, handling, shipping, transportation and item identification for the aircraft. All this L-3 will complete by November 2017 by which time 35 Sqn’s aircraft should be fully up to speed.

Let’s hope so!!

Although it started life with so much promise, it seems the C-27 project has gone badly wrong. Apart from the 38 that are either in storage or in use in the US, Alenia has only orders for 61 more aircraft, they include Australia 10, Bulgaria 3, Chad 2, Greece 8, Italy 12, Lithuania 3, Morocco 4, Mexico 4, Peru 4, Romania 7, Slovakia 4.

We think this aircraft will prove a winner once delivered and the squadron is fully operational and once proven in the field, perhaps orders will increase.

Here are some comparisons between the C-27 and the old Caribou.

Apart from not being able to pull up on a golf tee as could the Caribou, the Spartan, being half a century younger is a far superior aircraft (as you would expect). 35 Sqn are eagerly awaiting...

The JOTA.

Back in October 2014, Victor Stallan, an active Djinnang member, was responsible for organising and testing the amateur radio equipment and antennas in preparation for the scouts and guides JOTA (Jamboree On The Air). The JOTA was held at the 'Karingal' scout camp which is near Mt Cotton, south-east of Brisbane. He also scheduled the operators for both Saturday 18^th Oct. and Sunday 19^th Oct.

Slinging HF antennas was a bit of a problem. How to get a long wire high enough into the air for maximum radiation without the use of a cherry picker stumped them for a while until he reverted to an old proven technique. He used a bow and arrow to launch a string over high gum trees then the string was used to haul up a rope which, in turn, hauled up the long High Frequency multiband wire antenna. Then two vertical antennas were installed for VHF and UHF operation.

During the event the kids sent and received digital pictures between Karingal and the Kindilan guides camp, using a laptop computer and the UHF radio.

The kids had a ball, a few days in the bush, sleeping rough, learning how to cook, getting up close and personal with some wild-life, playing with electronic gadgets and learning some new tricks.

The Spring weather was kind to them with plenty of sunshine and approx 25⁰C days.

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