The Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) airlifted over one million pounds (450 tonnes) of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief to where it was needed within Japan following the 11 March tsunami and earthquake.
The Australian Defence Force personnel who have been conducting Operation PACIFIC ASSIST have now returned home to Australia. The operation was the ADF contribution to Australia’s Whole of Government response to the disaster.
A RAAF C-17A Globemaster transported around 70 members of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team and their equipment to Yokota to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in the first few days of the crisis.
During the ensuing 12 days of air lift operations, three C-17A Globemasters made a total of 31 landings at Japanese airfields to deliver over one million pounds of cargo including pumps to douse the Fukishima nuclear power plant, food and water, vehicles, and personnel and equipment of the 15th Brigade of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force to assist with the disaster relief effort.
The Commander of the Australian Contingent, Wing Commander David Howard, said the Operation made a significant contribution to the disaster relief effort.
“The C-17A has been outstanding during this operation not only in terms of its capability but also its reliability,” Wing Commander Howard said.
“All the aircrew have said to me without exception that although the situation that bought them here is dire, they drew a great deal of satisfaction out of being able to use their skills and their aircraft in a real sense to help people that they can see desperately need it.”
The Australian Defence Force personnel who have been conducting Operation PACIFIC ASSIST have now returned home to Australia. The operation was the ADF contribution to Australia’s Whole of Government response to the disaster.
A RAAF C-17A Globemaster transported around 70 members of the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team and their equipment to Yokota to conduct humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations in the first few days of the crisis.
During the ensuing 12 days of air lift operations, three C-17A Globemasters made a total of 31 landings at Japanese airfields to deliver over one million pounds of cargo including pumps to douse the Fukishima nuclear power plant, food and water, vehicles, and personnel and equipment of the 15th Brigade of the Japan Ground Self Defense Force to assist with the disaster relief effort.
The Commander of the Australian Contingent, Wing Commander David Howard, said the Operation made a significant contribution to the disaster relief effort.
“The C-17A has been outstanding during this operation not only in terms of its capability but also its reliability,” Wing Commander Howard said.
“It enabled us to move significant amounts of cargo between the major ports, including ones that had been recovered from the debris, in a fairly short space of time – getting the humanitarian assistance and the specialists to the places they needed to be to help the Japanese people as quickly as possible.”
He said that although the Operation was challenging, the troops were up to the task.
“The aircrew from 36 Squadron are trained to operate in a whole range of environments, but the conditions were still challenging,” Wing Commander Howard said.
“They faced snow and ice – something that they don’t see every day in their normal duties, and they had to deal with limited infrastructure and limited services such as air traffic control.”
The C-17A Globemaster completed several missions to Sendai, in the heart of the tsunami destruction zone.
“It was quite surreal sitting in Australia and seeing news footage of the water coming across the tarmac at Sendai Airport and knowing the catastrophic damage that was done, and then some days later actually being on the ground at Sendai airport, where the United States military had done a superb job of clearing away some of the debris to allow aircraft operations,” Wing Commander Howard said.