ADF – command – Solomon Islands

Introduction

Australia’s senior military officer in Solomon Islands is the commander of the Australian military contingent in the country, but also Commander of the Combined Task Force, which includes military personnel from three other member states of the Pacific Islands Forum – New Zealand, Tonga and Papua New Guinea.

ADF Commanders of RAMSI Combined Joint Task Force 635

Lt. Colonel John “JJ” Frewen July – November 2003
Lt. Colonel Quentin Flowers 17 November 2003 – March 2004
Lt. Colonel John Hutcheson March – August 2004
Major Martin May August – December 2004
Lt. Colonel Chris Fields December 2004 – January 2005
Major Martin May January 2005
Major Jon Heap
Lt. Colonel Andrew Gallaway April – June 2006
Lt. Colonel Jeff Quirk
Lt. Colonel Peter Connor
Lt. Colonel Ian Upjohn August 2007 –
Lt. Colonel Neil Grimes 2009
Lt. Colonel Dave Thompson

2003

Operation Anode: ADF contribution to Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Minister for Defence Robert Hill, Media release 96/03, 2003

“The first commander of the Coalition Task Force is an Australian, Lieutenant Colonel John Frewen, the current Commander of the 2^nd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment.”

Senior Australian officials of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Australian War Memorial (AWM) photograph

“Senior officials of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI), and local people, on the veranda of the new police post at Isuna, during an official opening ceremony. Left to right: an unidentified local man; Assistant Commissioner Mark Johnsen of the Australian Federal Police (AFP); Ben McDevitt, Assistant Commissioner of the AFP, Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Solomon Islands Police, and Commander of the RAMSI Participating Police Force (PPF); an unidentified man; Inspector Allan Sutherland of the AFP; an unidentified man; Lieutenant Colonel John Frewen, Commander of the Coalition Task Force.”

Senior Australian officials of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands, Australian War Memorial (AWM) photograph

“Senior Australian officials of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) arrive at the village of Rame’ai, in northern Malaita, for a meeting with local people [on 11 November 2003]. Left to right: an unidentified member of the Australian Federal Police (AFP); Alan Moody of AusAID, Aid Development Coordinator of RAMSI; Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt of the AFP, RAMSI Participating Police Force Commander; Nick Warner of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, RAMSI Special Coordinator; and Lieutenant Colonel John Frewen, Commander of the Coalition Task Force.”

Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) John Frewen, Australian War Memorial (AWM) photograph

“Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) John Frewen, Commander of the Coalition Task Force for the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands [in 2003] and Assistant Commissioner Ben McDevitt of the Australian Federal Police, RAMSI Participating Police Force (PPF) Commander (right) at a public information meeting in the village of Rame’ai. They are wearing flower garlands presented by local children. Lt Col Frewen was appointed Commanding Officer of 2nd Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR) in December 2002. Previously, he had served with the ADF in Rwanda. He led the multi-national military task force sent to restore law and order in the Solomon Islands in July 2003, including Australian troops deployed under Operation Anode. The task force provided security and logistic support to the PPF, led by Assistant Commissioner McDevitt, a Canberra-based police officer who had previously played a prominent role in the Bali bombing investigations.”

2004

New CO for RAMSI, Army – the soldiers’ newspaper, 2004

“The military contingent deployed to the Solomon Islands in support of the Regional Assistance Mission has a new CO. The former CO of 3RAR, Lt-Col Quentin Flowers assumed command from Lt-Col John Frewen who arrived with the original RAMSI force in late July 2003. Lt-Col Flowers assumes command of the military contingent at a significant stage of the operation, as military forces draw down and remaining forces continue the task of providing a security response and logistics force in support of RAMSI operations. Meanwhile, Col Bill Sowry has relieved Col Paul Symon as Military Adviser to the Special Coordinator, Nick Warner, the leader of the regional assistance mission and adviser to the Solomon Islands Government.”

2005

Small group big job, Army – the soldiers’ newspaper, 17 November 2005

“The Australian-led task force consists of a HQ Group and an infantry element drawn on a rotational basis from Australia, New Zealand, Tonga, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. The HQ Group comprises the Commander of CTF 635, Maj Jon Heap; Deputy Commander Capt Jason Hutchings, of the Royal New Zealand Army; liaison officers from Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea; as well as Australian support personnel in the areas of intelligence, logistics and signals.”

2009

Minister of Defence Visit to Solomon Islands, Minister for Defence John Faulkner, media release MIN 8/09, 16 July 2009

“The Minister for Defence, Senator John Faulkner today visited the Solomon Islands. …Senator Faulkner met with the Commander of the Combined Task Force, Lieutenant Colonel Neil Grimes and with some of the 140 Army Reserve personnel that form the Australian Defence Force contribution to the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Operation ANODE’s Rotation 18 personnel are drawn mainly from the Australian Army’s Victorian-based 4th Brigade.”

Commentary and analysis

Counterinsurgency in a Test Tube: Analyzing the Success of the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), Russell W. Glenn, RAND National Defence Research Institute, Monograph MG-551, 2007, pxvi

“The battlefields of counterinsurgency and stability operations are more often the human mind and social organisations than physical terrain. An intelligent enemy or other savvy group looks for seams between motivations. Interested parties seek to capitalize on bureaucratic jealousies and assail any available rift in their efforts to separate supposed allies, sow distrust in the population, or achieve other goals. An organization that tolerates such seams, or whose members put individual interests before collective ones, aids and abets’ the adversary it must eventually defeat to be successful. Nick Warner, Ben McDevitt, John Frewen, and those serving with and after them understood this. They were committed to minimizing the interagency, multinational, and other bureaucratic rifts through which divisiveness could seep and thereafter undermine mission success.”

Communication as a tactic, Lieutenant Colonel John “JJ” Frewen, Defence Magazine, July 2005

“In July 2003, I commanded the regional military intervention force as part of the Australian-led ‘strengthened assistance’ mission to the Solomon Islands. I was responsible for the military operations of Combined Joint Task Force 635 from 24 July until 18 November 2003 – during which time we achieved a dramatic turn around in the law and order situation in the Solomons. The mission was a good example of the subtle employment of military force in support of other government agencies in a synchronised way, with careful regard to the tone of military operations and how they are perceived.”

Helping a friend, Lieutenant Colonel John Hutcheson, Australian Army Journal, Vol.2 No.2, p47

The ADF Commander of the Combined Joint Task Force 635 in the Solomon Islands under RAMSI, Lieutenant Colonel John Hutcheson, outlined his perspectives on the challenges of the opperation in the Australian Army Journal