Army clerks Help Keep Task Group Afghanistan On Track

ARMY administration clerks Warrant Officer Class 2 Megan White and Private Nicholas Farallo are helping to administer all ADF personnel deployed to Afghanistan.

The two clerks are working in the busy Australian Task Group Afghanistan headquarters at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul.

WO2 White is the chief administration clerk and has been in the Army for 24 years.

"I look after the day-to-day administration of all ADF personnel in Afghanistan and manage two clerks here in Kabul and one at Qargha," WO2 White said.

"Some of the tasks I do are compiling the daily personnel statistics of where all ADF personnel are in Afghanistan, organise NATO Base passes for all personnel arriving into Kabul and ensure entitled personnel are awarded the NATO medal for their operational service."

Her last deployment was in 2000 to Dili in Timor Leste as a private clerk. For this deployment it took at least a month to settle into her job.

"I found it a little difficult when I first got here as my last deployment in 2000 was working with Army units," she said.

"Working with other nations has its challenges; however it is ultimately a very enriching experience to work with people from different service backgrounds and cultures."

For WO2 White the best part of working in Afghanistan is enabling the other personnel to perform their roles.

"By doing my job I'm ensuring everyone else here can do their job well, so they don't have to worry about looking after their own administration," she said.

"It's daunting for some people when they arrive here and if I can make the experience less of a shock for them then I've achieved my goal."

Pte Nicholas Farallo is on his first overseas deployment.

The 22 year-old clerk will have been in the Army four years in July.

At Kabul he works in the operations cell.

"I'm the operations clerk and one of my main tasks is to manage the rotary wing transport bookings within the Kabul, which is the preferred mode of travel," Pte Farallo said.

"I provide personnel with their departure timings, assist with their transport to and from the helicopters and keep track of everyone coming in and out of locations.

"This ensures new march-ins get to their units, people get away on leave and return to Australia as quickly as possible and the movement around Kabul in support of mission critical travel is conducted efficiently."

Pte Farallo also assists with the communication between units in Afghanistan and other Middle East region units.

"I also manage the internal and external correspondence registry through all of the different units in the Middle East region," he said.

"This has me as the conduit for all formal correspondence for our headquarters, logging in and out minutes and other letters."

His job also has him working with most of the people in Australian headquarters in Kabul.

"I get to work with almost everyone here and I have contact with others all the way back to Camp Baird," he said.

"I'm busy most of the time, so the days go really fast and it's hard to believe I'm nearly half-way through my deployment," he said.

"It's also a professional environment, everyone's so personable and friendly, which made me feel comfortable."

This being his first deployment he's had to learn his new job fast.

"From the beginning I've had to learn a whole new role, as I've never booked rotary wing transport before and I had to learn a new computer program to book it.

"I've also quickly learnt how to appropriately communicate with star ranked officers and to be better organised to complete a large number of new tasks and processes I hadn't experienced prior to my deployment."