WORKING WITH 11 ACR

Another small incident that happened as a result of 11 ACR working with 9RAR and having elements located with our HQ at FSB……. Prior to their departures they dug a trench and proceeded to burn all their rubbish. Unlike the Australian we used to back load most of our rubbish from the FSB back to Rear Echelon were they would dispose of it in a dignified manner...

Anyway, thrown on the fire was an AN-PRC 25 Set, which was our main means of communications in the Battalion. As the Radio Sgt and responsible for the Communications within the Bn, to get an extra radio was unheard of, so I with the assistance of the CSM SP Coy Ken Hopkins we recovered it from the ashes almost unscathed. On close examination of the radio discovered that several internal modules, like the transmission module and the receiver module were missing. Another item recovered at the same time was a Barrel of am M60 machine gun.

As an enthusiastic Radio Sgt, keen to maintain as many radios on line and working as possible, I carried a small collection of these parts with me at all time, with the intention that if I could fix it in the field and get the broken radio back on line ASAP without going back to Rear Echelon it would be more efficient way of operating. Well how wrong can one be? I got the radio working but it requires frequency calibration that could only be done back at Rear Echelon, so I sent it back to the Battalion's radio mechanic, for the task to be completed.

He refused to fix it, the reason given was the radio didn't have a serial number it was alien, So here we are actual trying to fight a war provide good communications for the Commanding Office and members of the same team were hampering the process because there was no serial number on the bloody radio.

The end result was I got the radio back, had it repaired at the RAEME Workshop, kept the radio as a spare and handed it over to the relieving Radio Sgt of 8 RAR for him to HIDE FOR 12 MONTH from his Radio Mechanic. Not sure this radio actually change the course of the war but hope it went some way to contributing to the success of the Bn in the war zone.

Not sure what happened to the spare M60 barrel probably met with the same fate. No serial number so it must not be used in anger.