Dave Lassam
Photographer unknown. (1999). Dave Lassam aboard HMAS Kanimbla. Photograph sourced by Dave Lassam.
As a medic, Tasmanian-raised Dave Lassam formed part of a 15 person Navy medical team on board HMAS Kanimbla, an amphibious landing ship that went to East Timor in 2006 as part of Operation Astute.
Their primary role was to support the army, who were going in to secure the airport.
He vividly remembers the scene from offshore of Dili being a huge contrast to peaceful Tasmania.
“You could see everything. Dili was burning again, which was pretty sad, black smoke coming out of everything and you just think,
"Really".
“The bad guys were setting fires here and doing something bad over here and then when we’d go there, they'd go somewhere else and light a fire. It was all over the place.
“But within a couple days the army had taken control, we moved the ship alongside. Every now and again somebody would shoot at us with shotguns and stuff, so we were told to keep below the ballistic armour on the side of the ships, so you just had to watch what you're doing.
“Quick as a flash it can get quite boring, but we were there to support the army guys, the captain literally said, "We're like a hotel for the soldiers. And we will shower, feed and look after them. And that's our job".
“We did get to do a couple of trips in the special boats, we went up to the airport, the medics, just for a look basically onshore, that was okay.
“But I must admit, one of the funny things was the captain threatened me, he said, "I do not want the next landing at Timor since World War Two to be a boatload of bloody medics getting off in the sand". And they wouldn't let me off in the sand with my troops but we went, had a look from the boats.
“After about a week or two it was decided to downsize the medical operation. I left a couple of my best medics there with the army and they flew the rest of us home. So it was fairly short and sweet. The army did the rough yards, but we’d gone in support, to keep them going and for them to stop the fighting. And they did.”
Dave, Lieutenant Commander, RAN (Ret), has chronicled his story in a book titled: “Meet Dave Lassam, The Man for the Job: My 39 Years Service in the Royal Australian Navy” published 2022 by Xlibris AU.