US Plans to Locate Military Training Center in Australia

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 6/07/04 | Patrick Goodenough

[DeuceTraveler]

Wow. How cool.

[Highest Authority]

Will they be able to posess actual, real guns???? It's a shame what's happening to so great a country as Australia!

[KangarooJacqui]

Tindal RAAF base would benefit greatly from the influx of US forces, and, dare I say it, cash.

And I'd sleep safer knowing that if the Islamics in Indonesia suddenly rose up as one against "the Australian infidels", we'd have more than a few Hornets up north to defend us.

[KangarooJacqui]

Will they be able to posess actual, real guns????

Our police and military carry guns, just like yours, thanks very much.

[kittymyrib]

I always thought Aussies were a lot like Texans, but I guess I was wrong. They've let the wusses take over.

[rabidralph]

Can we bring our sharp knives and bows?

[dakine]

Party Time!!

[KangarooJacqui]

... And the last time you visited my country was when, exactly?

[Flavius]

not to get in middle of the trans atlantic spat...

but the distruction of guns was disturbing,
whats the situation with gun ownership in australia...

anyways wanted to move there at one point
peace

[KangarooJacqui]

Can we bring our sharp knives and bows?

Answering in the same sarcastic vein... you can drop those on Jakarta on the way south. Bring the M-16's, thanks again...

You know, smart-alecky ignorant remarks about Australia's PARTIAL gun limitation laws do nothing but reinforce useless stereotypes. You're not being funny and you're certainly not being clever by making those sort of remarks. There are many of us in Australia (and in the United States too, for that matter) who value our liberty just as much as the next man or woman, but have never seen fit to carry a gun.

If the only way you'll respect someone is if they have a full gun rack on the back of their pickup truck, well, we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

[KangarooJacqui]

not to get in middle of the trans atlantic spat...

Erm, no, try looking in the other direction. Britain is to your east - this is a trans-Pacific issue. Consult a decent world map. And a dictionary (it's "destruction", by the way).

Australia is still one of the finer countries on earth, gun buybacks or no gun buybacks.

[dakine]

Woomera (sp) AS, 1987...Doesn't make me an expert on Australia, but if you think visiting does....

[KangarooJacqui]

I suppose you can't tell me what you were doing in the South Australian desert, as that would be "classified".

*Shrugs* Like I care. My father once held quite a high security clearance during the Vietnam War, when he was carrying out covert surveillance for the US. He's still viewed with respect by ASIO (sort of like your CIA)...

[Alas Babylon!]

See my homepage. Woomera allumni, 1982-84. Loved it! Great, beautiful country with wonderful people. Wish they put this base closer to people, though. How far is Tindal (by the way, the USAF has a major base called Tyndall AFB, in Panama City, Florida) from Darwin?

[alloysteel]

Since we can't use Vieques Island any more, and people have become overly concerned about how the USMC is misusing the real estate at Camp Pendleton, it has become ever more important to have a real-life and real-time training facility where warriors in training may bang away and sharpen their skills for the time when they will be called upon to make an assault on an enemy that shoots back with malice aforethought.

Believe me, the other side is not concerned in the least with the environment.

[KangarooJacqui]

Tindal is outside the town of Katherine, south of Darwin. This was the best map I could find in a hurry (and requires Adobe Acrobat viewer to use it)...

http://www.abs.gov.au/Websitedbs/D3110122.NSF/0/f9c96fb635cce780ca256d420005dc02/$FILE/NT_map.pdf

And to help with the distances (here given in kilometres...), 10km is roughly 6 miles.

You'll find a lot of central and northern Australia is very sparsely populated indeed.

[Dundee]

Actually, ASIO has more in common with the FBI than the CIA (ASIO has a domestic focus) but without the law enforcement aspect (that's why you see the Federal Police with ASIO when they do raids). It's ASIS that is the rough equivalent of the CIA. DIO/DSD equates to the NSA.

It's not worth busting a blood vessel over people flapping their lips without thinking first.

Besides, my new section boss is a Marine AND a Texan AND he loves it here.

As an Aussie gun owner though, I gotta say our dumb-ass gun laws need to go.

[Dundee]

Be thankful you didn't get a posting to the NAVCOMSTA Harrold E. Holt. It's about a 1000 miles north of Perth which in turn is about 1500 miles from the nearest major city (if you want to call Adelaide a major city).

[KangarooJacqui]

Actually, ASIO has more in common with the FBI than the CIA (ASIO has a domestic focus) but without the law enforcement aspect (that's why you see the Federal Police with ASIO when they do raids). It's ASIS that is the rough equivalent of the CIA. DIO/DSD equates to the NSA.

Why did I know you'd step in to correct me? :-) Cheers, I meant to type "ASIS" but typed "ASIO" instead. Silly me, I shouldn't FReep after taking my sleeping pills.

Goodnight. (And P.S. - Texans seem to understand the concept of Australia better than most Americans. I guess it's because the spaces between their cities is largely filled with "wall to wall of bugger-all", just like nearly all of central and northern Australia...)

P.P.S. This isn't me busting a blood vessel, believe me. This is me making my gallent contribution towards further mutual understanding between the people of two countries which, last time I checked, were allies... if I wanted to "go off", believe me, they'd feel the aftershocks in Kansas. (Just kidding... lol).