Loggy: Working with the true heroes of East Timor

By Allan A. Murray

A case study in the failure to update doctrine and how a 'can do' attitude saved the day.

This fifth book in the Series spans the decade of Allan's commissioned service in the Australian Army from mid-1993 through to late-2003. Allan progressed through the field ranks of Major and Lieutenant Colonel.

This is primarily a book about logistics. Whilst Allan spent a year attending Army Command and Staff College in 1995, for most of the decade he served in large headquarters as a Staff Officer specialising in logistics. He was a Loggy.

The Australian Army in mid-1993 was to focus upon the defence of Australia. Military activities further afield were limited to United Nations interventions. This suited the Australian Navy and Air Force but had an emasculating effect upon the Army. If the defence of the air-sea gap succeeded, the Army was only needed for low level conflict: rounding up ... 'nongs in thongs in the north'! The allocation of funds to the Army was progressively driven downwards.

The Australian Army ended the Cold War with logistics doctrine and structures that were characterised as 'square'. They emphasised fronts, flanks and Lines of Logistic Support and suited Corps-level campaigning on an extended front at great distance from the national economy. This book in part describes Allan's journey with the Australian Army to adjust both logistic doctrine and force structures for the defence of Australia, which was characterised by 'circles' in a less dense battlefield in the north of Australia. Allan witnessed a succession of major reforms that sadly eroded the Australian Defence Force of true projection capability and sustainability.

The effects from reduced Government funding became clearer as they flowed inexorably through to doctrine and structures. The change in Government in 1996 presented an opportunity and Army began a counter campaign. From 1997 onwards massive effort was put in by some to grow the role of Army. The ideas of conducting operations in the littoral terrain to our north and of an 'Arc of Instability' - based on the coups in Fiji and rebellion in Bougainville - were devices to this end.

In the next three years, events in Bougainville and East Timor and the Asian Financial Crisis vindicated the Army's counter campaign. There was an 'Arc of Instability'! Attempts to adjust logistic doctrine and structure purely for the defence of Australia was largely nugatory work but the damage was done. The demands that East Timor placed upon the Army were the greatest since the Vietnam conflict. But it was a campaign of projection and sustainment as ultimately there was no real conflict. This book tells the story of the true heroes of East Timor, the logisticians who overcame the legacy from successive reviews and reductions and the absence of agreed doctrine so that the mission succeeded.

The Foreword for this book has been written by Colonel Tony Anetts, CSC (Retd) whom Allan worked with at Headquarters Logistic Support Force in 2002-03.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09CBPYPRV
• ISBN13: 9798453591275
• Release Date: August 2021
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 124 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"