Brad Dunn - A more natural deployment in East Timor

Transcript

I just deployed in role. Armoured vehicles we deployed in as an APC squadron supporting third battalion, third RAR. I got 24 hours' notice to go. We boarded Tobruk. It was our wedding anniversary the weekend we deployed, so I boarded Tobruk, spent my anniversary out at sea. Then a few days later we arrived in Dili and we offloaded and arrived in Dili. There were lots of fires when we arrived, the city was burning.

The Indonesians were withdrawing. It was a lot of complexity in Dili at the time. Pardon me. It was a more natural deployment for me. You get your vehicles, you load on, you get your vehicles you load off and then you get your troops and you start patrolling… This sounds strange, it was more natural for me in East Timor, because I was with my troops, men that I trained with for years, doing a role that I prepped for years.

To carry a rifle in that situation, it's much easier. It's much simpler to know whether you're going to aim or shoot or do anything. Compared to Cambodia, it was very kind of you're working independently in a way. It was all very natural East Timor. We'd butt up with something, work it out. They'd go, we'd go.

I didn't fire a shot in Timor in the long run, pointed guns a lot, but in reality, within a couple of weeks, we were there on our own. The militia that was still there, they were small pockets. They were mostly these Timor guys that were a bit lost, out of a job, Indonesian buddies had gone home.