Captain Paul Sanderson with the Defence Co-operation Program (DCP) checks the navigation on a map with an East Timor Defence Force (F-FDTL) section from the Ready Company Group.
17 Jul 2013|

Captain Paul Sanderson with the Defence Co-operation Program (DCP) checks the navigation on a map with an East Timor Defence Force (F-FDTL) section from the Ready Company Group.

Photo By Corporal Chris Moore

Caption:
Captain Paul Sanderson with the Defence Co-operation Program (DCP) checks the navigation on a map with an East Timor Defence Force (F-FDTL) section from the Ready Company Group.

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THE gift of sight is one of the most important senses we have, and soldiers from the East Timor Defence Force (F-FDTL) have recently shown how effective it can be.
During MAREX 10, also known as Exercise Crocodile in East Timor, soldiers from B Coy 8/9RAR, New Zealand, East Timor and US Marines from the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit (15MEU), undertook five days of jungle training just outside of Vemasse.
Lt Brent Daire from the directing staff said the F-FDTL soldiers gave an example of just how good their observational skills were in jungle terrain.
“This is where they excel,” he said.
“They pick things up and anything that is not meant to be there they pick up like lightning. They are very quick at it.”
He said if anything was unnatural in a jungle setting they would see it immediately.
“This is their natural environment and they have been working in it a long time,” he said.
“They would make great scouts.”
OC B Coy 8/9RAR, Maj Dave Guthrie, said one of the biggest challenges in jungle warfare was visualising a target. That is a skill the F-FDTL soldiers could pass on to others who worked with them.
B Coy found many of its previously held assumptions challenged in the tangled undergrowth at Vemasse.
“The F-FDTL brought the ‘ground truth’ to how it has been done in the past,” Maj Guthrie said.
“They have given us a little bit of enjoyment and opportunity to see how it can be done.”