Publication:Navy Annual 2005/Navy Clearance Divers Lend Hand

BY LEADING SEAMAN KRISTIAN WINTERFORDE-YOUNG

Australian Clearance divers inspect a stockpile of unexploded World War II ordnance in the waters of Betio Island, Kiribati.

Who do you call if you're the government of the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati and you have an unexploded World War II ordnance problem? In this case they called the royal Australian Navy clearance divers.

In early 2005, five members of Australian Clearance Diving team One (AUSCDT ONE) flew to Betio island, the most populous island in the Tarawa Group, 4000km northeast of Brisbane, to dispose of unstable commercial explosives and unexploded World War ii ordnance stored in the police station, just metres away from civilian housing.

In World War II, Betio Island was the site of a Japanese airstrip protected by a garrison of 4800 soldiers. On 20 November 1943, the United States Marines launched a massive assault on the island - the first major amphibious landing of the war. One thousand Marines were killed and 2000 were wounded in four days of fighting. Only 143 of the Japanese forces survived.

AUSTCDT ONE moving the World War II ordnance to a remote sandbar in readiness to be detonated.

Today, the legacy of that battle could still claim more lives. Littered throughout the island group and its coral reefs are dozens of decaying and unstable unexploded artillery shells, anti-aircraft shells, hand grenades, sea mines and mortars.

The ordnance is regularly unearthed during construction work or by divers, snorkellers or people fishing. With no explosives expertise on the islands, local police either move it to their compound or cordon off the area.

That's where the Navy's clearance divers come in. specialists in explosives, the five-man team from AUSCDT ONE safely moved the commercial explosives and World War ii ordnance to a sandbar and, with most of the island group's 84,000 population looking on, the ordnance was expertly detonated.

Lieutenant White, RAN,Executive Officer, AUSTCDT ONE surfaces after inspecting unexploded ordnance on a reef off Betio Island, Kiribati.

"I think we were a bit of a hit," said LEUT Chris White, RAN, Executive Officer of AUSCDT ONE. "It's great to be able to use our training to lend a hand to the people of Kiribati."

The Royal Australian Navy has two operational clearance diving teams: AUSCDT ONE, based at HMAS Waterhen in Sydney, NSW, and AUSCDT FOUR based at HMAS Stirling, south of Perth, WA. Clearance divers from both teams have served in Vietnam, East Timor and both Gulf Wars.