Rattling (Talisman) Sabres

Every two years, this area plays host to joint U.S.-Australian war games that go under the name Talisman Sabre. They're heavy shit; land/sea/air, bombing runs, live ammunition, amphibious landings—the last time they were on, there was even a non-stop flight out of Alaska to parachute special services troops into the "combat zone".

30,000 military personnel take part, which has a significant impact on a city of only 60,000. Although most of the action takes place on the coast about 70 kilometres north, the main staging area is a large though normally lightly used military camp across the road from the airport. It's recently become tent city; though I've noticed over the last couple of years that there are a lot more permanent structures being built.

From past experience, it's not the influx of people that you tend to notice, though. They're mainly off playing games. What will be disturbing are the number of military convoys—tanks on low-loaders, armored personnel carriers, troops in trucks, fuel tankers, ambulances—bringing materiel up & down the highway from other military bases in the country or from the port at the mouth of the river that is normally used for exporting salt; the giant Russian—no Cold War in commercial enterprises—cargo planes that will soon start ferrying in dismantled tanks, & helicopters which, when put back together, will be seen crossing the sky head to tail like caterpillars. There will be warships off the coast. There will be large numbers of commercial aircraft bringing in overseas military personnel, then, when they stop, the mock bombing sorties will begin, all day long & sometimes into the night, planes rattling the windows as they pass by the house after taking off from the airport which is only a couple of kilometres away.

& then the small things that nag at you, that generate more than a soupçon of paranoia. The little signs on telegraph posts, color-coded of course, indicating the routes that the various conveys should follow. & the constant wonder as to why a small-city airport has the capacity & the area to accomodate the largest planes in the world.