Terror Alert

The rotary-wing weakness in our rapid response

It was 1978, and I had been in the Australian Army for almost two years, joining 6th Battalion the Royal Australian Regiment at the age of 17. Exercising in the Shoalwater Bay area, the battalion was about to undertake its first helicopter night assault in Australia. At that time, I was an anti-tank gunner equipped with the 84mm Carl Gustav anti-tank weapon when deployed by air. We trained for days in daylight but now came the big test for all of us. I remember how in total blackness, except for the lights of the choppers, we deployed onto the ground and made our way through thick bush to take up our positions in preparation for a full-scale battalion night attack. I was impressed with our leaders and our training as everything went according to plan. They were the best, with many of them veterans of the Vietnam War.

But I couldn’t help thinking at the time, what the outcome would have been if our landing had been opposed by a determined enemy? The Iroquois helicopters we travelled in were Vietnam veterans themselves, but they were light-skinned, poorly equipped and vulnerable to small arms fire.