Drama at Russell?

or Melbourne, it’s closer.

I don’t own a beret. Maybe i should go on a trip to France…

my beret’s a fetching black, and i cut a dashing figure i it, i must say…

Just to divert further away from the original article – has there been any further (ideally online) coverage relating to the suspicious mail article found at the ONA mailroom?

Aviation experience? I hope you realise this is the Riot-ACT and not the Defence Review Board. I never let experience stand in the way of my opinion, nor let the facts spoil a good story, and besides you get what you pay for here. Why, I could probably work for ACA or TT with my well researched comments.

Actually, the colour of the SASR beret is Fawn!

The Army beret (which you may wear if not entitled to wear a Corps or Regimental beret) is dark blue.

Aviation Corps is light blue.

3RAR Parachute battalion beret is dull cherry (not maroon).

For Commando qualified personal the beret is sherwood green.

Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) beret is rifle green.

The members exiting the “Chopper” wearing the blue berets were the pilots and loadmasters.

Now we have the Facts!

Mmm – people in blue berets exiting a helicopter at ADF HQ – shocking and clearly either a conspiracy or yet another example of military incompetence. Or perhaps the berets were blue because that is the colour of the Army Aviation Corps beret.

tybreaker – perhaps you can advise us, from your years of experience of military aviation, as to what procedure the helicopter should have adopted for landing. How do you know it wasn’t ‘well planned’ and what planning should have been in place? What ‘exclusion’ zone should have been used? Civilian helicopters frequently use the helipad at Westmead Hospital in Sydney which is only 50 metres from a busy suburban street. The approach is over the hospital and medium density residential buildings. During flight operations the surrounding roads remain open for vehicular and pedestrian traffic and neither the hospital or homes are evacuated. I expect that if one of these helicopters crashed on approach or take off it would ‘cut up traffic and pedestrians’ – the risk though is negligible and therefore acceptable.

Asp – perhaps you can advise us exactly what procedures should have been adopted by the Police and military in response to the explosive residue incident? Obviously you must know a lot about these things given you feel qualified enough to state that it was over zealous. Or perhaps the Police are the real experts on these things and wisely adopt the position that all such incidents are real until proven otherwise. BTW how do you know the helicopter was related to the explosive incident? Blamey Square is some distance from the ASIO / ONA building is it not? ASIO / ONA are civilian agencies – not military – so what is the link?

Thumper – perhaps you should just rename yourself tosser, get your facts right re the beret colours before making those kinds of statements. SASR do wear sand colured berets, the para btn wears maroon, the others wear green. ADGies are part of the RAAF, not the Army.

Well, Win News reports that a suspicious package with explosive residues detected in it was delivered to the mailroom of the ASIO/ONA building. AFP Bomb Squad personel made the package “Safe”.

Helicopters and scores of Police and Army personel seems a little over zealous. After all, the envelope contained explosive resideue, they didn’t say anything about fuses, timers or even solid explosives. Either not well planned or they’re not telling us something.

I was standing there when the chopper came in low, circled once around Blamey Square and came to a landing in the island between the two major car parks. Was truly a majestic site as I find most chopper experiences.

Now it did strike me as odd too though because when it landed it was in peak hour with traffic on all the roads around it and people walking to their cars – ie there was no safety fencing or security ensuring nothing came near the chopper during the landing. It was about 10-15 mins after the landing that a single, red security vehicle turned up and blocked one of the south bound lanes heading towards the Russell roundabout. This kept traffic from coming too close to the chopper on the south bound road but there was still nothing on the north bound road. The whole scene was weird. I was thinking as it was slowing down its blades that gee, I hope those blades don’t accidentally tap that bus as it goes by. An exclusion zone should have been mandatory I would have thought. If there had been any sort of mishap during landing, that chopper would have ended up cutting up traffic and pedestrians heading towards their cars.

About 3-4 blue berets exited the chopper and headed over towards the Russell buildings and were greeted by another group.

I have no idea what it was all about but I do get the feeling it wasn’t very well planned.

HMAS Pinnafore?