Media Room: Defence Speech

PRESS CONFERENCE REGARDING DEATH AT DURING TRAINING ACTIVITY AT CULTANA

 

Parliament House, Canberra

 

 

E&OE

 

 

CHIEF OF ARMY, LIEUTENANT GENERAL KEN GILLESPIE:

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.

 

It is with a great degree of sadness that I stand here today following the tragic death of Lance Corporal Mason Edwards last night.

 

At approximately 9:30pm (South Australian time), Special Forces soldiers were conducting a night training activity with live ammunition at Cultana, South Australia.  The activity was associated with mission specific training for an upcoming Afghanistan deployment.

 

During the training activity, Lance Corporal Edwards received gunshot wounds to the head, and another soldier received small arms fire shrapnel wounds to his arm.

 

Immediate first aid was provided to both soldiers by their mates who were also involved in the training activity.

 

A civilian helicopter responded to a call for assistance from the unit, but tragically Lance Corporal Edwards succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene by medical personnel.

 

The second soldier, from the incident response regiment, was transported to a civilian hospital for medical treatment. His condition is currently stable and I am informed it is likely that he will be released to return to his unit later this afternoon.

 

The families of the both soldiers have been informed of this accident.

 

Lance Corporal Edwards, a member of the 2^nd commando regiment, was killed during mission specific training. The military task being refined was that of a close quarter, or confined space, direct action task.  In a task of this nature, our Special Forces soldiers act in unison to apply lethal force in a complex environment.  Such a task is one element of the comprehensive mission specific training which precedes the demanding mission rehearsal exercise always conducted by special forces (indeed all Army elements) prior to operations.  It is an integral part of Army’s force preparation procedures and culminates in the Special Forces commander certifying to me that his troops are competent and ready to undertake the full array of military tasks ahead of a unit’s deployment.  In this case, most of the soldiers involved are veterans of multiple operational tours to the Middle East.

 

Although this is clearly a very tragic event, mission rehearsal exercises do save lives on operations, and are a vital part of Army’s force protection measures. It also serves as a reminder of the extremely dangerous job undertaken by our serving personnel.

 

This is a very sad day for the Army, and our thoughts are with Mason’s family, his colleagues who did everything they could to save their mate and the wider special operations community.

 

Defence and Army are doing everything we can to support the family, and the families of the wider Australian special forces community. We will continue to support them through this very difficult time.  For the troops involved in the incident, a critical incident support team including physiological support is being deployed to Cultana today and Chief of Air Force has kindly placed aircraft at my disposal to ensure this happens expeditiously.

 

I know for a fact that Mason was a committed and determined soldier; tremendously proud of his service and in his mates with whom he served. I can tell you that he considered himself lucky to live in this great country and to have the love and support of his family and partner.  You will learn more about this great Australian in the days to come.

 

To the injured soldier, who is in a stable condition, the CDF and I wish him well during his recovery. We will give him all the support he needs as he recovers from his injury and the loss of his friend. The personal details of the injured soldier will not be released.

 

And to the other members of the unit who are preparing to deploy, I encourage them to be there for each other as they deal with this loss. This will be a devastating blow to them. They are a tight-knit unit who have been working very hard to be the best they can be once deployed. This will be tough, but I am sure they will draw strength from each other.

 

The events of yesterday evening will be the subject of full civil and military investigations.  The south Australian police will lead the investigation supported by the ADF investigative service.

 

Could I ask that you give Mason’s family privacy at this very taxing time?

 

I'm prepared to take any questions that you might have.

 

QUESTION:    General Gillespie, was Corporal Edwards a reservist or a regular soldier?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          A regular soldier.

 

QUESTION:    And how old was he?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          He was 30.

 

QUESTION:    And had he been on previous deployments?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          He had been. His next deployment to Afghanistan would have been his third to that location.

 

QUESTION:    Has there been any support to the soldier who accidentally shot him?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          We don't know the circumstances of the accident at this stage and I, noting that the South Australian Police have leadership in that area and very hesitant about inquiring further into the circumstances of last night so that I'm leaving that with them.

 

QUESTION:    Will everybody be sent to Afghanistan still?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          Sorry?

 

QUESTION:    Will everyone who is remaining on the training be sent to Afghanistan still?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          It would be my intention that they would unless the investigation indicated something to me that caused me to change my mind in that regard.

 

QUESTION:    General, what sort of back up is actually given to the other soldiers involved in general? What's available to be given to the soldiers?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          We've developed over the years and the lessons that we've learnt about accidents like this that following an incident of this nature we need to insert what we call a critical incident support team and that team is a free form organisation, it can include doctors, padres, psychologists, it can include friends of the people who were there or other professionals who have lived through the same sort of activity. So we will assemble today what's necessary to deal with the circumstances that we find.

 

QUESTION:    General, you said that a civilian helicopter responded to this incident. Is it normal to have live fire operations and not have helicopter support?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          The helicopter support plan was overlaid over the operation; there was a doctor on the scene which is two of the principal requirements we have of that nature. 

 

QUESTION:    Can you tell us a bit more about these close quarter rehearsals with live ammunition?  You've described them as vital but can you give us a sense of just what goes on? How close are the quarters? Are the units operating against each other in a training exercise?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          You know that our special forces have a significant role to play in a counter terror-type activities, activities which could be focused on releasing hostages, activities that could be focused on trying to capture an Afghanistan Taliban leadership and quite often the opportunity which they need to take to execute their mission means that they're going to be operating in a confined space  ‑ a building, a compound, a hotel, a ship ‑ and so we work very hard in training to make sure that they're fully competent for that range of scenarios that they have.

 

On this occasion they were getting ready for operations in Afghanistan so compound clearance, house clearance, working in confined spaces in rural areas and urban areas are the sorts of tasks that they would be rehearsing for. And they're sort of the most dangerous tasks that we can have in those sorts of spaces, both in terms of an opposition in a confined space prepared to receive them when they come and also in this nature, the potential if they're not very well trained in this regard to do harm to themselves.

 

QUESTION:    Does that mean actually indoors, this exercise?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          It can be indoors, yes.

 

QUESTION:    How many people were involved in the exercise?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          I haven't got that figure at the present time and nor would I sort of talk about the size team that we would have doing that sort of task.

 

QUESTION:    Were the soldiers wearing night vision goggles at the time?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          I can't answer that.

 

QUESTION:    How come live ammunition is used if this is just a training exercise?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          Because ultimately it is the use of live ammunition in these scenarios which gives them the confidence to know that they can react in Afghanistan on first contact with the enemy in a professional way with all of the skills and trusts that are necessary in that sort of environment. So it's a very essential part of their training.

 

QUESTION:    On another issue police have charged a man for sending offensive letters to family members who ‑ of soldiers that have been killed, is this a disturbing report?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          I don't know that it's a disturbing report. It's an issue that's with the Australian Federal Police and the court system at the present time and I really don't have anything further to add in that regard.

 

QUESTION:    Could you tell us Corporal Edwards' previous missions to Afghanistan, can you ‑ are you able to share when they were and were they a regular length of service over there?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          I haven't got it here with me but yes, we can share that sort of information with you.

 

QUESTION:    General, is there any constant review process on using live ammunition in training exercises? Is it something that you will definitely continue indefinitely or is it ‑

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          I would see it being an ongoing feature of final training and mission rehearsal exercises for activities such as Afghanistan.

 

QUESTION:    Is there going to be a review into what exactly went wrong and how this happened in a training exercise?

 

GENERAL GILLESPIE:          Absolutely. Clearly we have a soldier who is deceased, something went wrong and the aim of the South Australian Police investigation and the Australian Defence Force Investigative Service investigation here will be to tell me what went wrong and what I need to do to fix it. Thank you.

 

 

Media contact: Defence Media Liaison: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664