Force leaves for Sinai

Press, 4 March 1982, Page 3

Force leaves for Sinai

PA Auckland Fifteen Royal New Zealand Air Force ground crew left Auckland yesterday to join the multi-national peacekeeping . force in the Sinai Desert. The first contingent of the 35-member New Zealand contribution left Whenuapai for Canberra at 12.30 p.m. The crew members were issued with socks and balaclavas to cope with the extreme weather in the desert, where temperatures can reach 38deg. C. during the day and where the nights are cool. Most of the crew members did not-know what to expect on their six-month tour but said that they looked forward to their stay. The New Zealand contingent will include six Army men and 29 Air Force personnel. The crew and headquarters staff will leave next week. They are expected to arrive at Sinai on March 20. The New Zealand contingent will be part of an Australian force under the command of Wing Commander Terry Wilson. He said that the force

would have to spend the first five months in cramped conditions.

The force would be based, with up to 1000 other infantry and civilian personnel, at the former Israeli military airfield at Etam, which would soon revert to its Arab name of El Gorah.

The United States was, spending more than $lOO million on improving the facilities at the camp but it would be some months before this would be completed. The Anzac contingent would be billeted in prefabricated concrete barracks measuring about 4m by 6m but because of the overcrowding caused by the presence of construction workers the members of the force would have to sleep three or four to what would normally have been a double room.

He expected some problems with recreational leave but he hoped that sports facilities, which had not yet been completed, and a beach about 14km away would alleviate these.

He would encourage airmen on leave to travel to both Egyptian and Israeli settlements.