Navy People: Ben McNeil

15 July 2010

For Nowra’s Ben McNeil, 30, the first few days of Exercise RIMPAC in Hawaii were a throw-back to his own first days in the Navy.

HMAS Kanimbla’s ‘Pizza Night’ gave the new-fledged Navy air crewman a chance to briefly revisit his original trade as a cook back when he joined the Navy in 1999.

Now a Leading Seaman, Ben is a graduate of Nowra High School and now lives back in Nowra with his wife Bianca and 20 month old daughter Emmison.

His cooking career took Ben to the Solomon Islands and on operations in the Middle East. He had also taken part in a previous RIMPAC.

But the desire for a career change, and the opportunity to move back to Nowra, led Ben to trade in his apron last year to become an air crew member in 817 Squadron.

“I changed because of the lifestyle,” Ben said. “The job is more exciting. I get to see things from a different angle.”

Ben’s family is no stranger to Navy aircraft – father Robert was a maintainer in the Navy for many years.

Although this is his Ben’s sixth deployment to Hawaii, it marks his first time as air crew. It is also the final time that the 817 Squadron Sea King helicopters will take part prior to their withdrawal from the Navy in 2011.

During this year’s RIMPAC HMAS Kanimbla is not only home to the 12 air crew, 44 maintainers and three Sea King helicopters, it has also welcomed troops from several nations including Canada, Indonesia and the United States Marine Corps who will take part in a beach landing later in the exercise.

Ben said he is looking forward to participating in the upcoming amphibious operations as part of the exercise.

And as usual, HMAS Kanimbla certainly won’t be short of company during the next few weeks. Thirty ships from fourteen Pacific Rim nations are taking part, including the United States, South Korea, Indonesia and Canada.

Approximately 1200 Australian personnel will be participating in the exercise which will run through to the 1st August 2010.