---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Australian Broadcasting Corp. The World Today Friday, September 3, 1999 12:20 p.m. Australian soldiers prepare for East Timor COMPERE: And as the momentum builds for sending UN troops to East Timor, Australia's forces are preparing on the RAAF Base at Tindal in the Northern Territory. The Defence Minister, John Moore, has just finished inspecting the troops this morning. They include elements of special forces from Perth and 15 of the Army's Blackhawk helicopters. Raphael Epstein is at Tindal and he's been speaking to helicopter pilot, Brett Kopernick, and soldier, Kevin Reid. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: The prospect of doing everything you've trained to do, is that exciting or scary? BRETT KOPERNICK: Well, obviously it's something that we've done a lot of training for and it is our job that we do, so basically we'll just do whatever's asked of us and hopefully it should work out quite well. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Do you need a little bit of fear to operate well? BRETT KOPERNICK: No, not necessarily fear, just basically everything that we've done is always to do our job. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Most people are familiar with the Blackhawk accident. Does that make you ever think again about doing what you do? BRETT KOPERNICK: Every job's going to have its particular risks and dangers and suddenly this one might be a little bit riskier than others, but at the end of the day we're extremely well trained, the training is always there, has a very good safety culture, and that's what we always orientate for. And definitely we always learn from lessons in the past and we can only ever hope to improve things. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: What's your favourite thing to do in a helicopter? BRETT KOPERNICK: Definitely without a doubt probably low flying which is definitely one of the big things that we get trained to do, which goes to military operations, and it's probably one of the most exciting things that we do as well. KEVIN REID: The heat's a bit of a battle, but we've sort of been here for a while now, so we're sort of getting used to it. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Do you like being here? KEVIN REID: It's good to be away from Sydney and the normal rigours of sort of mundane everyday life but, yeah, no, it's all right. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: And do you enjoy that sort of training day? KEVIN REID: Yeah, it's good. It's normally down back in Sydney, it's 7:30 to 4 o'clock, a normal sort of day. It does get a bit mundane doing the same thing every day. It's good to come up here, a different routine, and sort of get down to the pool every afternoon. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Have you been overseas before with the Army training? KEVIN REID: Yeah, I've been to Malaysia. The Army does a regular three-month Malaysia stint up in there, and a small trip to New Zealand, but that's about it. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: And what was it like locating in Malaysia? KEVIN REID: It was good, but the weather was obviously a bit hotter and more humid than here. But it's good to go overseas and experience different cultures and a few different things. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Can we ask if you're scared? KEVIN REID: Well, we train for this sort of thing sort of every day, and as we're always exercising in with that sort of focus, that we could go any time anywhere, and we've done it that many times that we get ready to go and we just sit around and do nothing, that you just sort of switch off after a while and you just do what you've got to do and then you go home. RAPHAEL EPSTEIN: Is it true that every soldier does actually need a little bit of fear to keep on their toes? KEVIN REID: It's hard to say if it is a good thing. It keeps you sharp, but I mean, anyone who is faced with this sort of thing obviously would have to be a bit scared, or stupid if they're not. COMPERE: Kevin Reid, one of Australia's soldiers preparing, if necessary, to go to a front-line on East Timor, speaking there with Raphael Epstein at the Tindal Base in the Northern Territory. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 3 Sep 1999 jam 11:13:55 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
