The Australian Defence Force Commander in the Middle East Area of Operations, Major General Mike Hindmarsh made a special trip to the Hercules base to personally thank and congratulate members of the Richmond-based No. 37 Squadron detachment for keeping aircraft flying in the face of severe climatic and maintenance-related challenges.

Major General Hindmarsh presented a formal commendation to four aircraft maintainers for their achievements through a particularly challenging period in early June in which the detachment managed to achieve 100 per cent of its mission taskings despite a series of mechanical setbacks which threatened to ground a number of aircraft for an extended period.

At the award ceremony Major General Hindmarsh praised Sergeant Adam Wilson, Corporal Ben Young and Leading Aircraftsmen Christopher Blake and Edward Gitsham for their outstanding commitment and dedication to task.

“The professionalism, tenacity and perseverance you displayed… including a complete engine change, whilst working outside in temperatures exceeding 45 degrees with winds gusting to over 40 kilometres an hour that in turn generated dust storms which reduced visibility to less than 1000 metres, is nothing short of exceptional,” he said.

“Over a five day period you displayed an ability to endure extremely harsh environmental conditions and yet continued to work thoroughly and methodically at a consistently high tempo.”

There are about three dozen maintenance-related staff serving with the Hercules detachment.

Shift supervisor, Flight Sergeant Darren Cannings, said the focus was on mission success and the maintainers and other workshop staff took enormous pride in keeping the Hercules flying on their missions into Iraq and Afghanistan.

The efforts of the maintainers are recognised by the flight crews. They rise in the pre-dawn hours and brief their missions with full confidence that their aircraft will be ready to fly.