Navy People: School mates on pirate patrol
20 September 2010
It’s not often that three people from the same school have the same employer at the same time. It’s even rarer when all three go on anti-pirate patrol off the Horn of Africa.
But for Bradley White, Hayley Cornish and Ben Hagan that’s just what has happened. The three former students of Broughton Anglican College all joined the Royal Australian Navy between 2006 and 2008. Now they have all been promoted to Able Seaman, and they are on a six-month deployment aboard Navy frigate HMAS Melbourne.
Bradley White joined the Navy in 2006 and specialised as an electronics technician.
After finishing his HSC in 2005, Bradley had been searching for an electrical apprenticeship when his mother, Karen, found an article about the apprenticeship opportunities in the Navy.
After one year training at HMAS Cerberus in Victoria, Bradley joined HMAS Melbourne for competency progression three years ago. He still gets a buzz out of localising a fault and fixing it so key underwater systems such as sonar, underwater telephone, submarine decoys and tracking will still work. After this trip, he is hoping for a few weeks off to go on a holiday and then get a posting ashore.
Ben Hagan joined in 2007 as a Boatswain’s Mate, which means on-deck seamanship. He later specialised as the Navigator’s Yeoman. Aboard HMAS Melbourne he is responsible for maintaining and updating navigational charts and publications. His brother Pete is also in the Navy as a Navigator’s Yeoman.
Ben was onboard Melbourne with Bradley when the ship deployed to Singapore, Thailand, Hawaii and Samoa. He’s looking forward to the training and experience of the Middle East deployment and, with the money he saves up, he hopes to buy a house when he returns.
Hayley Cornish joined up as a Navy Cook in 2008. She has already had some experience with humanitarian operations, having served on HMAS Kanimbla in 2009 in support of Operation Resolute and Operation Sumatra Assist. Hayley had always been interested in the Navy. She loves the travel aspect and thinks that the pay is good too!
Hayley is one of nine cooks who prepare four meals a day for more than 200 people. She has to make sure that meals get served on time and are of a high standard because this is a big morale boost for the crew. But when she gets back after six months away, her priority is to have a belated celebration of her 22nd birthday with her family and friends.
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