Tartan Terror - Navy Victoria Network

Transcription

Tartan Terror
The Official Newsletter of HMAS Stuart – Edition 3, 2013
From the Commanding Officer
As the ship proceeds North through the Inner Great Barrier Reef we can
reflect upon what has been a very busy period since the last newsletter.
The ‘Tartan Terrors’ successfully completed our Unit Readiness Evaluation
then participated in the International Fleet Review (IFR) and Exercise
TRITON CENTENARY. It has been a fantastic time for the ship and for the
Navy. The ship’s contribution towards the success of each activity has
been first rate and the service can be justifiably proud of the officers and
sailors in Stuart.
Time has flown since the last edition and the four week workup to achieve
unit readiness after a brief maintenance period ensured that we had little
time to sit still. The workup is normally scheduled over five weeks
however due to a number of constraints we only had four. It meant that
the crew had to work harder than would normally have been required.
The team was still successful despite this and other challenges including an incredibly large change of
personnel since ANZAC’s return in January. Despite this, the mixture of the old with the many new
members still managed to achieve an excellent result.
The IFR was the once in a lifetime event that we were confident that it would be. For those of you that
were fortunate to see the different displays and activities, you would agree that it was spectacular.
After the tall ship entry and re-enactment of the 04 Oct 1913 arrival of the first Royal Australian Navy
fleet into Sydney Harbour it was a busy schedule. The Review by the Governor General of the
Commonwealth of Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Quentin Bryce, AC, CVO escorted by His
Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales was great to be a part of and the Pyrotechnic Display and Light
Show that night with the ship anchored and launching fireworks from between Fort Denison and
Kirribilli Point was sensational. The ship also played important parts in the Open Days, the Combined
Navies March, Memorial Services and the other festivities for the week. It was an excellent week for the
Navy and the support of our families and the public made it worth while.
The ship then sailed for Ex TRITON CENTENARY while also supporting the Fleet Aviation Reconstitution.
With the many different countries participating in the IFR there was an excellent mixture of ships to
then conduct an International Exercise. The changes to our program were also confirmed at this time
and on returning to Sydney we had a brief leave period before deploying in support of Australian
Government directed operations. Achieving the required readiness after the challenging ‘Hull Swap’ in
May is a fantastic achievement. The crew has worked extremely hard to have the ship in a sound
material state and for it to be ready to fight and win at sea. The support of the families and friends of
Stuart has also contributed a great deal to the team success. You can be justifiably proud of their efforts
in making the ship the best that it can be, I know that I am.
We wish everyone a safe and happy festive season and all the best for 2014.
Yours Aye,
Jason Hunter, CMDR, RAN
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Tartan Terror – The Official Newsletter of HMAS Stuart, http://www.navy.gov.au/ hmas-stuart-iii
Email – [email protected]
Tartan Terror
PCYC Women Visit Stuart
17 Aug 13 - HMAS Stuart was host to 22 members from the Mount Druitt Police Citizen and Youth Centre
(PCYC). The PCYC is part of an initiative of the NSW Police Forces Youth Command Lifestyles Alternative
program where they target young girls who are known to Police to enrol into this 3 month program. The
aim of the program is to offer alternative lifestyle choices to the girls in the hope that they change their
current behaviour.
Some of the participants had never been to the city before and have never been able to speak to any Navy
or defence personnel. Given that all the participants of the program were young woman affected by
domestic violence, gangs, drugs, alcohol abuse and sexual assault, Stuart’s crew members enthusiastically
volunteered their day off to host the ladies onboard. The day began with a general safety brief, historical
brief and then some of Stuart’s crew briefed the group on their experience on Stuart and the Navy in
general. Not to be left out, the Army sent one of their female recruit instructors to give the girls an idea of
what it was like to join the Army. The day’s program saw a range of activities with the girls being showed
all throughout the ship. They loved the weapons station on the Gun Direction Platform (GDP) and the
friendliness of the crew. It ended with a Damage Control Exercise (DCX) then some afternoon tea where
we all mingled and the girls thoroughly enjoyed themselves whilst onboard.
After the visit the ladies stated that the highlight of the PCYC ‘alternative lifestyles program’ was the visit
to HMAS Stuart. No doubt that Stuart was able to present itself in the best light possible and was able to
give these young ladies an idea that there is more to life than what they know in Mount Druitt. The day
proved to be a very memorable one for both the members of Mt Druitt PCYC and Ships Company.
Bravo Zulu to ABMT Clive Nevell for organising this great day!
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Unit Readiness Workups
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International Fleet Review – HMAS Stuart centre
stage during Pyrotechnics and Lightshow
Spectacular
05 Oct 13 – The International Fleet Review (IFR) was held in Sydney to commemorate the centenary of
the first entry of the Royal Australian Fleet into Sydney harbour. The crew of HMAS Stuart were
privileged to be able to take centre stage during the Pyrotechnics and Lightshow Spectacular which
involved a 30 minute display where fireworks were launched from various Fleet units including from the
forecastle of Stuart.
Fireworks
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HMAS Stuart Open to the Public during IFR
6-7 Oct 13 – The crew of HMAS Stuart hosted two open days in support of the International Fleet Review
activities alongside at Fleet Base East. Both days proved to be a huge success with in excess of 2000 visitors
coming onboard. Pictured clockwise from top left: ABMT Daniel Hardy, ABBM Dean Woodfield, ABCTS
Megan Wild, ABET Wing Hyland and MIDN Todd Fitzgerald, SBLT Thomas Lennards and ABET Luke Turner.
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IFR Combined Navies March in Sydney
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International Fleet Review - Sports Day
10 Oct 13 – In support of the IFR, Stuart entered teams into the international football, rugby and tug-o-war
competitions. Played on an extremely hot windy day the football side had a mixed day against HMAS Huon
(lost 2-0), Malaysian ship KD Jebat (drew 0-0), Nigerian Ship Thunder (lost 5-0) and Indian ship INS Sahyadri
(lost 3-0). The team is pictured above: ABET Luke Turner, ABET Daniel Llewellyn, ABET Daniel Wallder,
ABCIS Nathan Rowe, LSML-C James Smith, CPOCSM Pete Burnett (coach) ABCSO Zac Meredith, ABET Owen
Gauslaa, ABCSO Blake Norris, ABCIS Rhys O’Neill, ABEW Sonny Daye, ABMT Adam Goodwin and POCSS
Christopher Carter.
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10 Oct 13 – Pictured above is the HMAS Stuart rugby side: SBLT Damon Vizl, SBLT Loudoun Campbell,
ABMT Eric Bagnell, ABCIS Thomas Casserly, ABMT Cameron Woodham, ABCIS Matthew Rauicava, ABET
Adam Cook, ABMT Clive Nevell, LSMT James Robinson, ABMT Daniel Hardy, ABMT Dylan Newsome and
LEUT Jai Coppen.
The Tartan Terrors played four games winning against HMAS Kuttabul 14-0, losing narrowly to a combined
Pacific forces (Tongan/PNG) side 7-5, defeating the Americans from USS Chosin 14-0 before losing the final
match 12-0 to a combined HMA Ships Perth and Parramatta team. The team did extremely well
considering they had no reserves and the coach was required to play front row. BZ team.
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Tartan Terror
Sailor of the Quarter – July-September
POCSS Ray Narey
The Tartan Terror – (aka The HMAS Stuart ‘Sailor of the Quarter’) is an award bestowed upon the
sailor judged to have demonstrated superior:
Work performance; Wholeship involvement; Adherence to the Navy’s core values and Signature
Behaviours; Representation duties within Defence; and Involvement and interaction with the
Community.
The sailor of the quarter award for Jul-Sep is Petty Officer Combat System Supervisor Ray Narey.
Pictured below is Ray with their certificate which reads in part:
“Since joining Stuart you have endeavoured to be the best Senior Sailor possible and you have been a
role model not only for the AIO department but all onboard. As well as setting up the Operations
Room during Hull Swap, you found time to assist other departments, moving equipment and stores
between ships. Leading by example you
would not ask any sailor to complete a
task that you would not or could not
complete yourself, which is a credit to
your professionalism, integrity and
leadership. You are a team player who
has consistently demonstrated excellent
leadership qualities; you are always the
first in line for whole ship events,
completing the most menial of tasks with
a cheerful disposition whilst motivating
those around you.”
Bravo Zulu
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Promotions
Left – Seaman Electronics Technician Owen Gauslaa
receives his promotion to Able Seaman from the
Deputy Weapons Electrical Engineering Officer
(DWEEO) LEUT Emma Houlihan and the WEO LCDR Ian
Cain.
Below - POEW Nicole Wilcox and CPOCSM Peter
Burnett change the rank slides for SMNEW Sonny Daye
upon his promotion to Able Seaman.
Below left – SMNML-S Shanee Szczepek
receives her Able Seaman rank slides from the
ASO Jack Davis and CPOML-S Stephen Slack
Below right – the previous sailor of the
quarter, LSMT James Robinson, receives his
promotion top Petty Officer from a proud
Marine Engineering officer Anthony ‘Buzz’
Burrows.
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Awards and Presentations
Left – LEUT Erik Alston proudly displays his
Commanding Officers Commendation for:
‘…for your outstanding dedication and
exemplary performance whilst carrying out
your duties as HMAS Stuart’s Assistant Marine
Engineering Officer (AMEO) from August 2011
to July 2013. In particular, you are
commended
for
your
exceptional
contributions in assisting the Marine
Engineering Department during the highly
demanding Hull Swap this year’
Bravo Zulu.
Below – receiving their OPERATIONAL Service
Medal-Boarder Protection are (from left) LEUT
Mitchell Tavener, POET Mark Jones and ABBM
Robert Vinen
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Tartan Terror
Meet the crew of HMAS Stuart
Full name: Justin Leslie Bartleet
Birthplace: Auckland, New
Zealand
Married/Kids/Siblings:
Girlfriend, Meisje and daughter
Marnie (aged 13)
Favourite sporting team: Gold
Coast Titans
Hobbies: Golf
Favourite overseas destination:
Singapore
Favourite movie: Highlander
Who would you invite to dinner?
Sean Fitzpatrick (ex All-Blacks
captain) or Reece Whetherspoon
Best advice or saying: Go team
stores
Petty Officer Bartleet is the senior
supply chain sailor onboard and is
responsible for the accounting all
stores items to and from the ship.
Some of his secondary duties
include
Defence
Watch
Coordinator, scene I/C in damage
control incidents and Petty
Officers Mess Treasurer.
Full name:
Michelle Ann Bush
Birthplace:
Liverpool, NSW
Married/Kids/Siblings:
Single
Favourite sporting teams:
Hawthorn Hawks, Gold Coast
Titans
Hobbies: Playing guitar and
singing, going to gym and the
beach.
Favourite singer or group: Justin
Beiber, Hanson, Chris Brown,
Hoodie Allen
Thailand
Favourite movie: Wizard of Oz,
Pitch Perfect and Men of Honour
Name: Jack Davis
Birth place: Carlton, Victoria
Marital status: Single
Favourite Sporting team:
Collingwood and Melbourne
Storm
Hobbies: Avid surfer, golf, snow
boarding and travelling
Favourite singer/band: Tool,
Black Keys and Ben Harper
Sumatra, Indonesia
Favourite movie: Happy Gilmore
Invite for dinner: Francesca
Cumani, Prince Harry, Dave
Chapelle and JayZ
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Who would you invite to dinner?
Dame Judy Dench
Stage Name (First pet/ First street
name): Lucky Delaunay
First ever employment: Waiter at
Frostbite (restaurant)
Best advice or saying: You don't
have to be great to start, but you
have to start to be great!'
Leading Seaman Michelle Bush is
the ships Physical Trainer who
hold our regular fitness sessions.
She also has numerous secondary
duties including Quartermaster,
XOs Assistant and Flight Deck
Marshaller.
First employment: Tennis coach
Sub Lieutenant Davis is the
Assistant Maritime Logistics
Officer (previously known as the
ASO or Assistant Supply Officer)
and he is responsible for a range
of duties onboard including:
Ships Canteen Administration
Fund manager, Special Sea Duty
man Ceremonial Officer,
Transport Officer, Welfare Fund
manager and trainee Helicopter
Control Officer.
Tartan Terror
Around the ship……
Terror in the gulf
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A day in the history of the Tartan Terror
April 2004 - When dawn heralded Anzac Day on April 25, perhaps no Australians could
poignantly contemplate the sacrifices of war more clearly than HMAS Stuart’s ship’s
company stationed in the Middle East.
Stuart’s exhausted sailors found themselves recovering from an intense period of action
in which they and three other Coalition vessels under Stuart’s control disrupted a
coordinated terrorist attack against the two oil terminals, Kwahr Al Amaya (KAAOT) and
Al Basra (ABOT), in the North Arabian Gulf (NAG).
This attack saw three American sailors from the patrol boat USS Firebolt (pictured
below) killed and four seriously wounded. Having arrived on station in the NAG on April
14, Stuart’s captain, CMDR Phil Spedding, was the Maritime Security Operations
commander and had tactical control of Coalition vessels at the time.
“One was USS Yorktown, a cruiser, and she was to the southwest of the ABOT terminal
in the ‘fullback’ position.
I had a patrol boat, the US Coastguard Cutter
Wrangell in position to catch vessels coming out
of the Kwarh Abd Allah waterway and board
them,” CMDR Spedding said.
The other vessel in the NAG at the time was
Firebolt, which had just returned unexpectedly
from a cancelled escort duty and was now
employed
as
the
KAAOT
guard
ship.
Had Firebolt not returned, Stuart was scheduled
to patrol KAAOT on the fateful evening of April 24. “At about 1900, on April 24, we were
patrolling just to the north of the security zone around ABOT, USS Firebolt was patrolling
around KAAOT and she detected one of numerous dhows that had entered the security
zone that day,” CMDR Spedding said. “She sent her RHIB with a plastic laminated chart
to show the master where the security zone is, and that they needed to leave.
As the RHIB drew alongside the dhow detonated.” Stuart was 4.1 nautical miles to the
south of Firebolt at that time and few onboard, except those on the GDP or bridge, heard
or saw the explosion. “Initially we thought little of it. I was called to the operations room
where I was told of a report of an explosion and I went to the bridge and saw it was
close to Firebolt’s position,” said CMDR Spedding.
“Then we received a message from Firebolt that the fishing dhow had exploded with their
RHIB alongside. The RHIB had capsized and six [later confirmed as seven] people were
in the water. At that stage we still didn’t know it was a terrorist attack.” Stuart
immediately began closing at best speed to lend assistance to Firebolt and prepared to
launch the port sea boat with a medic.
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Tartan Terror
Concurrently, Stuart’s Seahawk helicopter,
call-sign Hamish, was 50 minutes into a
routine surveillance flight six nautical miles to
the south-east of Firebolt. LCDR Rick Allen,
the flight commander onboard, said the crew
did not observe the initial blast as Hamish was
heading 160 degrees true at the time.
“We were two or three miles away from Stuart
when we got a call that there had been an
explosion about six miles away [from Seahawk Hamish’s position] and once we were
dispatched towards it we instantly saw a cloud of black smoke,” LCDR Allen said.
With only minutes remaining before sunset, Hamish could see strobe lights and distress
flares onboard Firebolt and on arrival at the incident site could see the overturned RHIB
and the crew of the USS Firebolt throwing lifelines to sailors into the water. With
casualties in the water, Stuart directed Hamish to commence rescue efforts.
Leading Seaman Ben Sime (pictured above and below with the Medal for Gallantry
awarded post this incident), the sensor operator onboard Hamish, said he could see
numerous people, life rings, strobes going off and debris and oil in the water as he
prepared the rescue winch and the cabin to receive the injured.
“The first guy that we came to, I could see a gouge in his head, there was a lot of blood.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get him into the strop because of his injuries,” he said.
“There was a group of people near the overturned RHIB so we attempted to drag him
toward that and to assist him from going under. We tried three times. On the third time
he let go and went under the water and didn’t come up.”
With only a crew of three, and no one to go down the wire to assist the injured into the
strop, the crew made a decision for LS Sime to enter the water. Dressed in his flight suit,
helmet and life jacket, LS Sime conducted a diverdrop from about 10 feet and Hamish
moved to a position to monitor him.
“I inflated my lifejacket and had a pistol grip underneath
the casualty’s chin to keep his head out of the water,” he
said. Moments after LS Sime entered the water, the first
of two attacks was launched against ABOT.
This was a large explosion and could be heard and felt
onboard Stuart and clearly identified the dhow explosion
as part of a coordinated terrorist attack.
The second attack six minutes later was again felt by the
Stuart. Darkness had now set in and the crew of Stuart’s
RHIB relied on the light provided by Firebolt’s searchlights
to load LS Sime and the injured seaman onboard before
taking them to Firebolt’s transom, where Sime and one of
Firebolt’s divers began CPR on the casualty who stopped
breathing.
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TartanTerror
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Tartan
“There were three or four other casualties on their quarter
deck [of Firebolt] with broken arms and legs and shrapnel
wounds and you could hear them screaming out,” LS Sime
said.
Onboard Stuart, CMDR Spedding had brought the ship to
action stations and raised the surface warning to Red at
the
instant
of
the
first
attack
on
ABOT.
Reporting from ABOT was still at this point confused, and
as the ABOT workers had evacuated shortly after the
incident, it was some time later before MT Ness, a tanker
alongside ABOT, gave a clear report that two small boats known as “cigarette boats”,
(common in the area trading food and cigarettes with fishing vessels), had launched
separate attacks against ABOT.
The Iraqi security detachments on ABOT took the boats under fire using small arms as
they approached and they both detonated before reaching their target.
From the moment Stuart’s RHIB prepared to depart, Stuart’s MO, LCDR Jody Bailey and
the Ship’s Medical Emergency Team (SMET) prepared for casualties, and at 2007,
Stuart’s RHIB returned with the first three. LCDR Bailey described the condition of the
casualties.
“Two of the first three patients were seriously injured and they were managed in the
wardroom by the SMET team.
One of the guys was later declared deceased,” LCDR Bailey said. After reconfiguring its
crew, Hamish conducted a medivac stretcher-lift from Firebolt’s forecastle, and on return
to Stuart the Medical Officer directed that one of the casualties be medivaced to the
405th Armed Forces Hospital (Kuwaiti Military Hospital) where he later died.
Stuart continued to receive casualties as the night progressed and Stuart’s RHIB
returned to Firebolt to ferry the dead and wounded before receiving the final body at
about 2200.
Seaman Jordan Bell, one of Stuart’s SMETs, was a communications operator on Boarding
Team Green on the morning of the 24th and had boarded about 10 dhows before
meeting with USS Firebolt’s RHIB for a short break.
He found himself later trying to save the lives of some of the other US seamen he had
met that morning. “I found the human aspect really hard.
“On the third time he let go and went under the water and didn’t come up.” “The
casualty... seemed like a good bloke and I probably would have been mates with him if it
was in different circumstances.” “There were three or four other casualties on their
quarter deck with broken arms and legs and shrapnel wounds and you could hear them
screaming out.”
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Tartan Terror - Navy Victoria Network

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