AN AUSTRALIAN cyclist trapped for three days in a hotel during a military uprising in Tajikistan has cut short his trip of a lifetime to return home.

Brian Thompson was two months and 6500 kilometres into a cycling tour along the ancient Silk Road when he and fellow travellers found themselves holed up in Khorog, near the Afghanistan border, as government troops tried to seize control of the town last week.

Mr Thompson said he heard shelling and gunfire 100 metres away as rebels resisted the army's advances. He and his touring companions desperately tried to make contact with their embassies in between periods when all lines of communications went down.

The Perth man and three other Australians were evacuated from the town by a Tajik government helicopter on Friday andLF, usually to investigate a perimeter security alarm.

Each Combat Crew has a voice circuit called the Hardened Voice Channel which links the five Combat Crews (LCCs) that comprise the squadron. There is also a voice circuit called the EWO (Emergency War Order) which links the squadron command posts (CPs). One of the squadron command posts (CPs) is also the wing CP. These two voice circuits work like a party line with all LCCs connected simultaneously. Thus, it is not possible for any of the Combat Crews to have private conversations. The term "EWO" used here is not to be confused with an actual Emergency War Order message from the National Command Authority. The same term is used to denote both this circuit and the message transmitted over the