An Artillery Joint Fires Observer awarded the Medal for Gallantry in the 2012 Queens Birthday Honours list was presented with his medal at Government House, South Australia, on September 4.

BDR David Robertson, of 102 Coral Bty, 8/12 Regt, said he was honoured to receive an MG for his efforts during a patrol in the Tangi Valley, Uruzgan province, on March 20 last year.

BDR Robertson deployed to Afghanistan in October 2010 as part of MTF 2. He then helped build Patrol Base Qareb, where he worked from late December 2010 until the end of his deployment in late July last year.

The patrol on March 20 during which Bdr Robertson earned his MG began with nothing out of the ordinary.

Two teams of 15 Australian Operational Mentoring Liaison Team (OMLT) members and 20 ANA soldiers patrolled 5km from Patrol Base Qareb to the village of Moruch.

While there, they planned to interact with locals and search for caches. The patrol had in support an Australian infantry section, an ASLAV and a mortar section, which was pushed up to an ANA checkpoint 4km away to stay in range of the patrol.

They stepped off from Patrol Base Qareb at 1300hrs and headed further into the valley, bound for Moruch.

The village was the next settlement down the valley past Derapet, where LCPL Jared MacKinney was killed in action on August 24, 2010.

“The closer we got to the village, the more reports we had of the insurgents watching us and preparing for an attack,” Bdr Robertson said.

“So we had the infantry section move forward across to the northern side of the river to establish a support by fire position acting as a deterrent for anyone wanting to target us.”

The reports continued as the patrol entered the village at 1500hrs.“We raised our level of alertness and set up a more defensive position around the village,” BDR Robertson said.

“The patrol commander with the interpreter had already started speaking to people outside their compounds and our engineers had started searching up a
dry creek bed for weapons caches.

“Not long after this at 1600hrs our snipers had identified and engaged a number of insurgents who could be seen carrying PKM machineguns in the next village, called Tutak.”

This engagement acted like a trigger for the remaining observing insurgents.

“We received an imminent threat warning over the radio and not long after that we began receiving effective small-arms fire from the high ground overlooking the village,” BDR Robertson said.

“Our patrol commander told me and several others to push up onto a hill 150m outside the village to find better observation points so we could find where the insurgents were firing from.

“When we got there we could see a number of insurgents on a ridgeline above us who were also firing down onto us and the patrol.”

On the hill, BDR Robertson, a signaller, two snipers and a MAG-58 crew were all exposed to the insurgent fire, with little cover available to them.“We all split up to gain the most cover we could,” he said.

“There was a small cliff face my sig-the problem was when we went there it gave us some cover from the elevated insurgent fire from the east, but exposed
us to fire coming from other directions.

“Shortly after we moved to the cliff face we began taking accurate fire from a machinegun to the north.”

BDR Robertson then called in a mortar fire mission from the mortar section at the ANA checkpoint.

“After receiving permission from the patrol commander, the mortars were laid on to the insurgents on the elevated ridgeline,” he said.

“After the initial round had landed 50 metres from the target I made a correction and gave them the command of three rounds fire for effect.”

Silencing the elevated insurgent position allowed BDR Robertson to turn his attention to the northern insurgent machinegun.

“I gave the new grid reference to the mortars after some of the infantry had seen dust signatures in the sky near where the machinegun fire had come from, allowing me to get an accurate grid location,” BDR Robertson said.

“The patrol commander needed the machinegun suppressed immediately so I ordered a fire mission of three rounds fire for effect.

“As this target was out in the open and away from the village, we used an airburst proximity round, which exploded above them.”

By 1620hrs the two insurgent firing positions had been neutralised and the standby ASLAV was called forward to the support-by-fire location on the northern side of the river.

The patrol commander then decided to push the patrol about 300 metres towards Tutak and search the compounds where the patrol’s snipers had previously seen and engaged armed insurgents.

Covering a wide expanse of open ground to reach Tutak from Moruch was a challenge.

“Because we were still receiving fire, the patrol commander coordinated the ASLAV, mortars and support by fire location to simultaneously engage a number of targets while the patrol moved up through an aqueduct into Tutak,” BDR Robertson said.

“At 1630hrs they moved forward and we remained on our hill, which was the only high ground we could continue to observe the patrol from.

“During this time we also ordered a mortar fire mission onto a target on the high ground above Tutak, suppressing the firers.”

After the patrol arrived in the village they searched compounds for insurgents and weapons.

At 1715hrs, with the sun going down and after not finding anything in the village, the patrol commander decided to withdraw to Patrol Base Qareb.

“From our elevated position we coordinated suppressive fire as the patrol withdrew from Tutak,” BDR Robertson said.

“Some of the insurgents were popping up from behind the elevated ridgelines and firing on us and the patrol, but once the ASLAV fired on them they’d move back behind the cover of the ridgeline and re-engage us from a new position.

“We ordered our last mortar fire mission onto targets on the high ground above Tutak, suppressing and keeping the insurgents’ heads down as the patrol
moved back to Patrol Base Qareb.” The patrol arrived back at the patrol base by 1840hrs.

Although BDR Robertson said he feared for his safety during the patrol, he was more concerned about his mates.

Most of the time on patrols I didn’t do much until I had to call in offensive support onto targets,” he said.

“When the time came, everyone else was relying on me to do my job and I really didn’t want to let anyone down.

“On March 20 lots of guys on the patrol had close calls yet continued to do their jobs and push forward.”