Navy People:Broken Hill Local Serving In The Middle East

6 June 2007

Broken Hill's Timothy Webb, son of Susan and Kerry, is now half a world away on patrol in the North Arabian Gulf. The former Willyama High School student and Redsox Baseball Club player is serving as a Chef onboard the Royal Australian Navy Frigate HMAS Toowoomba.

Timothy and his 180 shipmates provide an ongoing contribution to the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Iraq. This includes the important work of protecting Iraq's offshore export oil terminals and monitoring, intercepting and boarding vessels suspected of illegally trafficking cargo that diverts funds from the Iraqi economy.

Timothy is an Able Seaman and is part of a team that cooks approximately 600 meals a day feeding a crew of 181 people. Timothy describes "the job of being a chef in the Royal Australian Navy can be very demanding at times with the early starts and late finishes. We are highly trained in our job to be able to achieve such tasks as cooking enough food for over 180 people in as little as 30 minutes with only half of our equipment," which provides the Ship with redundancy in case of receiving damage. In addition to feeding Ship's Company Timothy also contributes to other evolutions such as launching and recovery of Ship's boats and is also a part of the Ship's Flight Deck team, which is required when operating the embarked Seahawk helicopter.

Timothy says the highlight of the deployment for him was when "I was selected to go to an oil platform and cook for a US Marine Security Unit for a period of 2 weeks. This was a great experience, and I walked away with some very satisfied Americans and good friends." Timothy remarked on the importance of the chefs in the Ship during a long deployment, he said "after a while everyone shows signs of fatigue and frustration, as you live and work with each other for the whole period of time. This is why I have to do my job to the best of my ability. They say that 'Morale starts in the kitchen,' this I know to be true. For example people take fresh bread for granted, but to the men and women on the ship it's like their lucky day when we bake fresh bread."

Timothy and his shipmates will be back home in July after a 6 month deployment.