Operation Flashpoint - Parliament House - Part 3

In late 2006, a foreign power set in motion a chain of events that would have culminated in the invasion of Fiji. Codenamed Operation Flashpoint, the ADF deployed its sea-borne and air assets to positions inside Fiji waters within striking distance of the capital Suva. Additionally, elite Special Forces infiltrated the country with communications equipment and weapons.

 

How close did we come to being invaded? Who among us who encouraged this act of aggression against their own country?

 

This is a fictional account of what may have happened in the days leading up to one of the most dramatic chapters in our history.

 

 

To the participant, this file is used to record emergency contacts, previous training details, specialisations and course progress records.

 

Each candidate is also asked to do a paper on a political or military issue. Although candidates are told the topic may be of their choice, it is up to the instructors to guide them into doing a paper on a topic of relevance to ADF interest, all done with very gentle persuasion though.

 

Many don't even realise they've become part of an intelligence collection exercise.

 

 The CF provides excellent information on the persons mindset, political inclinations, attitudes to ADF and local allegiances, information which would prove useful if you were planning a military operation.

 

 Unknown to the participants these files are made available to Australian forces in time of "need" and before us on the desk were 3 such files. We read and digested the information.

 

As part of military planning, it is vital to know who your friends are and who you may be up against.

 

The Fijian military has a reputation as a fierce fighting force. The treatment that the mutineers received is evidence of this. You mess with them and they will come at you hard and loaded. Their officers are highly trained and very able. These guys are the real deal.

 

To fight them on their soil would be a tough assignment, we knew this. But to be prepared is half the fight so we had to do our planning and be prepared for the unexpected. A large part of this was to invite their officers to defence courses and training exercises. This way we could understand their way of thinking and develop a rapport with the people we could possible be matched against.

 

In return, our boys toured Fiji every so often to participate in joint training exercises, mainly jungle warfare courses. There was no one better to teach us jungle warfare, then the Fijian boys. But it wasn't all friendly exercises. While the Fijians were not looking, we would duck out with our GPS's and our cameras for some tourist shots in front of some of their "landmarks" such as the Parliament building, the airports, the ports, Telecommunication facilities and Police barracks.

 

I remember one of the FMF boys asking us why we wanted to take photos of the Parliament house.

 

" Theres nothing there bro" he said. "Only a building, lets go some place better aye", as he laughed.

 

 I laughed with him. But we knew that the Parliament House would be the focal point of any major unrest as had been in the past. It was vital we saw it first hand and took some "holiday snaps" of entry and exit points, layouts, the type of material used in construction in case we had to force entry, possible LUP's and so on.  To be cont….