SASR is awarded and AusSOCOM recruits

[n4292936]

The dedication and skills of Australia’s Special Forces were officially recognised as soldiers from the Special Air Service Regiment who served in Iraq were today presented with the Unit Citation for Gallantry award, Minister for Defence Robert Hill announced today.

Governor General, Major General Michael Jeffrey talks with an SASR member during the parade.
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2004/jun/090604a/JPAU09JUN04WG017_lo.jpg


http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2004/jun/090604a/JPAU09JUN04WG083_lo.jpg

Governor General, Major General Michael Jeffrey inspects Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) troops during the parade.
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2004/jun/090604a/JPAU09JUN04WG089_lo.jpg

Minister for Defence chats with members of the US Air Force Special Tactics Squadron at the post parade luncheon. Looks like Cascade and Carlton Mid is the punch of the day... or is that that crap Toohey's New?
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2004/jun/090604a/JPAU09JUN04WG142_lo.jpg

Commanding Officer 4RAR, LTCOL Greg De Somer, shows Minister Mal Brough through the static display of weapons, communications and uniforms for the different roles performed by Special Ops.
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2003/oct/201003/NSW03-0162-127_lo.jpg

....and for you eager beavers out there with fanciful dreams of adventure and glory...
http://www.defence.gov.au/media/download/2003/oct/201003/NSW03-0162-049_lo.jpg
woot www.AusSpecialForces.com woot

[Khabbi]

cool beans

[squeak]

What ever happened to the Australian Government keeping actions of the SASR a tip top secret?
The public already knows too much about Special Operations forces.
Next they will know the soldiers shoes sizes and colour of socks!

[ShotOver]

Bah, there is a pub on cottesloe beach, which is near the Swanbourne barracks of the SASR, and they all go there go get pissed on a saturday night, it's like the WHOLE squadran is there, so we all know who they are anyway.

[RoBBo]

looks like carlton mid strength to me. if its tooheys i apologise to those air force boys on behalf of an embarrassed nation :lol:

[n4292936]

Media people must sign identity protection agreements so as not to reveal soldiers from the SASR and (I think) Commandos, but that is not as big a concern here as it may be in Britain. Anyway its the protection of methods and tactics that most concerns the relevant people. Nothing in this most recent departmental release compromises either identities or tactics - but it does serve as a nice reminder to the public and the large pool of potential recruits that is the ADF that the SASR is out there and productive. That, I think, was the objective of this release. AusSOCOM is on a big recruitment drive and are therefore raising the profile of our SF units.

[n4292936]

:D

[MARINO]

Good Work guys :D :D

[Gordon]

What ever happened to the Australian Government keeping actions of the SASR a tip top secret?
The public already knows too much about Special Operations forces.
Next they will know the soldiers shoes sizes and colour of socks!

Why's that got anything to do with the actions of SASR? .... just a normal bunch of guys speaking to a General in their army

[Gordon]

P.S. Nice Work Aussies.

[digrar]

Well done to the boys, the Unit Citation for Gallantry for service in Iraq and Meritorious Unit Citations for service in East Timor and Afghanistan as well as individual decorations are well deserved.
Congratulations also to the RAAF 75 Squadron for their Meritorious Unit Citation for service in Iraq.

Hands up if you have a harder head of state than Australia.

His Excellency, Major General Michael Jeffery, AC, CVO, MC (Retd)

Philip Michael Jeffery was born in Wiluna, Western Australia, in 1937 and was educated at Cannington and East Victoria Park State Schools and Kent Street High School.

At age 16, he left Perth to attend the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

After graduation in 1958, he served in a number of junior regimental appointments with 17 National Service Training Company and the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) in Perth.

He was posted to Malaya in 1962 for operational service with the 2nd and 3rd Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment.

In 1965 he was seconded to the British SASR for an operational tour of duty in Borneo.

He returned to Australia as Adjutant of the SASR in Perth.

From 1966-69 he served in Papua New Guinea (PNG) with 1st Battalion, The Pacific Islands Regiment and was married during this posting to Marlena Kerr, of Manly, Sydney.

This was followed by a tour of Vietnam as an infantry company commander with the 8th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment. It was during this tour that he was awarded the Military Cross and the South Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry.

In 1972 he was selected to attend the British Army Staff College at Camberley, and was then promoted Lieutenant Colonel to command the 2nd Battalion, The Pacific Islands Regiment in Wewak PNG.

In 1976, he assumed command of the SASR in Perth and was then promoted to Colonel as the first Director of the Army's Special Action Forces, for services to which he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

From 1981-83 he headed Australia's national counter-terrorist coordination authority in the rank of Brigadier, after which he was posted as Commander of the 1st Mechanised and Airborne Brigade in Holsworthy, Sydney.

He was selected to attend the Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1985.

He was then promoted to Major General and from 1986 commanded the Army's 15,000-person 1st Division.

In June 1988, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the Army and in 1989, as the Assistant Chief of the General Staff - Logistics.

In January 1990 he became Deputy Chief of the General Staff, responsible for the day-to-day running of a 65,000-person Army.

In February 1991 he was appointed Assistant Chief of the General Staff for Materiel, which involved the development and management of all Army equipment procurement and building construction projects.

On 1 November 1993, he was sworn in as the 27th Governor of Western Australia, and became a Companion of the Order of Australia, a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order and a Citizen of Western Australia for his services to the State. He was Governor until 2000.

General Jeffery was sworn in as Australia's 24th Governor-General on 11 August 2003 at Parliament House, Canberra. Upon being sworn in, he became the Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Australia.

[kommando]

i was gunna some hilarious comment like:

the sasr are posers

and everyone would be liek stfu n00b
but then i got thinking

imagine after being in the desert being all grubby all these big beards and stuff, thencoming back having to be all pristine and shiney and clean shaven thatd suck

id bet 100000000000000000000000000000 dollards most of them would be kicking to get back into the zone?

any takers
going once
going twice
going three times

dammit i win

:)

[2RHPZ]

woot Great job done!

Force just one SASR tool in a battle of wits

The Australian March 20, 2004

Force just one SAS tool in a battle of wits

AUSTRALIA'S special forces considered aborting a 600km secret air mission into
Iraq after a mechanical problem on one of the US Army Chinook helicopters forced
it down.

In what was one of the first incursions of the Iraq war, the Chinook was forced
to set down after a dangerous air-to-air refuelling manoeuvre when a dust storm
damaged the helicopter's refuelling probe.

The chopper, flying into the duststorm at dangerously low levels to avoid
detection, set down while soldiers inspected the probe.

It was left to a young Australian SAS captain to make the call on whether to
brave the weather and continue. The incursion, under cover of darkness, came in
the early hours of March 20 after Saddam Hussein rejected a US ultimatum to
leave the country to avoid war.

"In hindsight, getting the soldiers in there was probably one of the most
challenging parts of the mission," Deputy Special Operations Commander Brigadier
Mike Hindmarsh told The Weekend Australian yesterday.

"Basically, it was left to a young SAS captain who was the tactical commander to
make a decision to go on or come back the next night.

"If they had turned around, it would have left a significant gap in the
coalition's campaign in western Iraq," he says. "We were pretty relieved to hear
they'd arrived at their destination and the words, 'We are in location'," he
says.

The Australian SAS taskforce, totalling about 80 men, would encounter up to 2000
Iraqis during their six-week campaign, relying largely on guile and superior
firepower to outwit the enemy.

Its job was to knock out communications and missile stations to prevent Iraq
launching Scud missiles against Israel (although searches for the weapons in the
Australians' area of operation would prove fruitless).

Conditions were challenging, with night temperatures of -5C soaring to 43C
during the day. Dust storms in Iraq's western desert often turned to mudstorms
when it rained, clogging weapons and hindering the progress of operations.

While one group of SAS soldiers was inserted by helicopter deep into Iraq to
conduct long-range reconnaissance, another entered by road and ran straight into
trouble some 30km inside Iraq's border with Jordan.

The column of heavily armed four-wheel-drive vehicles was intercepted by Iraqi
forces in utilities with heavy machine guns and mortars. A brief firefight
ensued that would set the pattern for the first few days.

"They (the Iraqis) were from the very start attempting to take us on, hunt us
down and kill us," Hindmarsh says. "There were 16 firefights in the first 24
hours and it was pretty tough."

The Javelin shoulder-fired missile proved remarkably effective in ensuring the
SAS escaped casualties.

One of the most infamous battles, in which the Javelin proved its worth, came
some four days into the war, on March 24, when an SAS patrol was attacked by
some 50 Iraqis in SUVs. In an account of the firefight in his book Shadow Wars:
Special Forces in the New Battle Against Terrorism, Canadian author David
Pugliese says "as the Iraqis got closer they opened fire with rocket-propelled
grenandes and machine guns".

"Standing in the turret of his long-range patrol vehicle the SAS soldier looked
into the Javelin's sighting system and manipulated its computer cursor until it
was on top of the image of the approaching SUV.

"He then pressed the firing button sending a missile downrange at more than 90
metres per second.

"As it cleared the launch tube the missile's infrared seeker took over, homing
in on the truck's engine heat.

"When the 8kg explosive warhead slammed in to the SUV, it lifted the truck
momentarily into the air before the vehicle burst into flames.

"Bullets whizzed by as enemy commandos directed their fire at him."

Trooper X (SAS identities are not revealed) fired another Javelin, turning a
second SUV into a "twisted hulk of smoking metal".

He then took out a mortar tube with a sniper rifle, sending the Iraqis diving
for cover and forcing their surrender.

Trooper X's quick-thinking use of every weapons system available to him earned
him a medal for gallantry.

According to Hindmarsh, "within seven to 10 days I think our blokes had been so
successful in engaging the enemy that it became untenable for the Iraqis to
confront them".

But it was not always the use of brute force that got the best result.

In April, when the SAS and commandos took control of the Al-Asad airbase closer
to Baghdad, it was a case of applying minimal force to get the job done. "The
(SAS) soldiers were in a position of dominance and could have opened up with
heavy machine guns and killed a lot of people.

"Instead the strategy was to use a sniper rifle to place some well-aimed shots
in vehicle tyres, or the boot of a vehicle.

"They very rapidly cleared the place without having to take a life," he said.


The Australian SAS taskforce, totalling about 80 men, would encounter up to 2000
Iraqis during their six-week campaign, relying largely on guile and superior
firepower to outwit the enemy.

Let's see, outnumbered 25 to 1, constant firefights with the Iraqis, deep behind
enemy lines for 6 weeks, over 1500 enemy killed, zero friendly casulities.

[tenda]

...great country .....great army..!!! :)

[2RHPZ]

Howard suggests Latham snubbed SAS

June 10, 2004 - 12:07PM

Prime Minister John Howard suggested Opposition Leader Mark Latham snubbed the soldiers of the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR).
Mr Howard said an invitation had been extended to Mr Latham to attend a special function at the SASR barracks in Perth for the presentation of the Meritorious Unit Citation.
That was in recognition of their outstanding performance in the Iraq conflict.
Mr Howard said attending the function was a matter for Mr Latham.
"I asked that Mr Latham be invited. I gave instruction, express instructions, that he be invited," he said on Perth radio 6PR.
"The question of why he was not there is something that he should be asked. I don't know."

[digrar]

Mr Latham would be about as welcome at Campbell Barracks as a fart in a elevator. I think he made the right decesion to not attend.
He is also a bit busy at the moment trying to woo Ex Midnight Oils lead singer Peter Garret to the Labour Party.

[benny5405]

Why the photo don't not need to smear the face on it for keep member secret ??

[digrar]

None of the troopers faces were shown. The CO of 4RAR doesn't need to keep his face out of the media and the man overlooking the parade is ex military and is the Governor General, so also doesn't need to hide his face.
I don't know about the USAF blokes but I imagine personal security isn't a concern for them either.

[benny5405]

None of the troopers faces were shown. The CO of 4RAR doesn't need to keep his face out of the media and the man overlooking the parade is ex military and is the Governor General, so also doesn't need to hide his face.
I don't know about the USAF blokes but I imagine personal security isn't a concern for them either.

but in the photo , we saw the SASR badge on his reight aim

[mack pl]

None of the troopers faces were shown. The CO of 4RAR doesn't need to keep his face out of the media and the man overlooking the parade is ex military and is the Governor General, so also doesn't need to hide his face.
I don't know about the USAF blokes but I imagine personal security isn't a concern for them either.

but in the photo , we saw the SASR badge on his reight aim

well, even you saw face of some commandos, its not very important, because you dont know his name, adress etc. ;)

[n4292936]

Mr Latham would be about as welcome at Campbell Barracks as a fart in a elevator. I think he made the right decesion to not attend.
He is also a bit busy at the moment trying to woo Ex Midnight Oils lead singer Peter Garret to the Labour Party.
Ya ' Id agree with the first point... i should point out that, whether one agrees with his politics or not, Peter Garret is an articulate, well spoken person who has represented his beliefs with dedication in the past. I disagree with Latham's, and therefore Labors stance on the military at the moment, but can respect its membership - especially Kevin Rud despite his overly bookish appearance :)
Also, if the SAS needs to keep its faces out of the media then so to must Commandos, or at least the TAG side of Commandos.

[digrar]

The only two faces shown are the CO of 4RAR which isn't a problem and the Govener General who hasn't seen service with the SASR for about 20 years. So it's a non-event.

[benny5405]

Oh..... so that , i want to see the face of British SAS and SBS :|

[Andyman]

does one have to have previous experience in the aussie military in order to apply for special forces. I've ask around about it in the Canadian forces and i get a different answer every time. Yes...No...only if u have 3 years of service. i really dont know anymore

[digrar]

We are trialing direct entry from civvy street into 4RAR Commando at the moment. Normal residency and citizenship rules would apply. Try the www.defencejobs.gov.au site for any extra info.

Citizenship Requirement
Citizenship requirements will be met, for Full-time and Part-time applicants, if any of the following apply:

You are an Australian citizen;

You are a permanent resident who can provide a DIMIA (Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs) receipt to prove you have applied for Australian citizenship. (A permanent resident is generally eligible to apply for citizenship after two years. A permanent resident married to an Australian can apply immediately); or

You are a permanent resident who is not eligible to apply for Australian citizenship but are prepared to sign an undertaking to apply after completing 90 days service in the ADF or 130 days part-time aggregated service in the ADF Reserve. (Permanent residents become eligible to apply for citizenship on completion of 90 days service in the ADF or 130 days part-time aggregated service in the ADF Reserve).

A permanent resident who enters the ADF will have their service terminated if they subsequently:

fail to apply for citizenship when eligible to do so;

are not offered citizenship; or

fail to accept citizenship when it is offered.