The Top Ender Magazine October November 2020 Edition

Feature
Rim of the Pacific 2020
Ships, Helicopters and Castaways
Regarding our story in the August/September issue of this
magazine, a total of five ships, not four, visited Darwin
on their way to Exercise Rim of the Pacific, or RimPac 2020
– HMA Ships Canberra, Hobart, Stuart, Arunta and HMAS
Sirius (a supply ship). My apologies to the crew of Sirius
for that omission.
I have also since found out that I
made another error as well – HMAS
Canberra is properly referred to
as an Amphibious Assault Ship or
Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD).
Apologies for that also.
RimPac is a biennial exercise and is the largest international
maritime exercise in the world. This year’s exercise , held
off the Hawai’ian and Californian coasts included 22 surface
ships, a submarine and 5,300 personnel from ten countries
– Australia, Brunei, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand,
Republic of Korea, Republic of the Philippines, Singapore and
the United States of America. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic,
³ 1HMAS Sirius (right) conducts a Replenishment at Sea with JS Ise as they sail in company
through the southern waters of Hawai’i during Exercise RIMPAC 2020. – Photo
LSIS Christopher Szumlanski
´ An Australian Army ARH-90 Tiger Helicopter from HMAS Canberra lands on Pikelot
Island in the Federated States of Micronesia where all three men were found safe and
healthy after missing for three days.
Copyright – Australian Govt. Dept. of Defence
the exercise was held at sea only.
After conducting a Regional Presence Deployment and after
departing with the Task Group, to head home, the crew of
Canberra were involved in a search and rescue which assisted
in locating three Micronesian sailors who had run off-course
and run out of fuel. The men were found on tiny Pikelot Island
almost 200km west of where they set off in their seven-metre
vessel. A huge “SOS” signal written in the sand was spotted
by aviation assets embarked onboard HMAS Canberra. Crew
of 1st Aviation Regiment in an Australian Army ARH-90 Tiger
reconnaissance helicopter landed on the beach, delivered food
and water, confirmed the men’s identities and performed health
checks. A Micronesian patrol vessel subsequently went to rescue
them.
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