Publication:Sea Talk Winter 2005/Warrant Officer of the Navy's words

WO-N David Turner

G'day

I was fortunate to accompany the Chief of Navy on a ship visit to HMAS Kanimbla , off Nias in Indonesia recently. It was also good to see her come alongside Garden Island a few weeks later after she had completed her important work. Kanimbla has done both the Navy and the nation proud.

Of course ANZAC Day has come and gone for yet another year and I continue to be surprised by the level of support shown by the people of Australia for this important day. I spent ANZAC Day in South Queensland with the Currumbin RSL and like many similar organisations around the nation, they put on a great day. There were 6000 people at the dawn service and with a large retired community in that part of Australia I met many old sailors that I hadn't seen in years.

Work has continued into the role our Warrant Officers will fill into the future and recently the Patrol Boat Force Element Group has established a position similar to the Ships' Warrant Officer. This individual will support the FEG Commander in bringing the ARMIDALE Class patrol boat into service. You may know that the ARMIDALE Class will be multi-crewed and whilst this will not be easy to implement the lifestyle benefits that it will bring to Navy people will be significant.

You should have heard by now that two ANZAC Class ships will be flexi-crewed from the middle of this year. Again, these initiatives are not easy to do but they will bring improvements to the work life balance that sailors tell us they want.

These initiatives are both part of the Sea Change program and are just two of the many actions planned or being implemented as you read this. The Sea Change team have an excellent intranet site that gives you visibility of each action and its progress. It is called SCIMARS and I urge you to take the time to have a look at it. Plans are also well advanced to put a version of this site on the Internet to make it even more accessible.

Sea Change is certainly gaining momentum and significant interest is being shown in this program by other navies, both large and small. It is more than a coincidence that many of us are facing the same personnel challenges but we can all be quite proud that our Navy is facing these challenges better than most.

Once again, take care and if you see me on my travels, say G'day.

David Turner

Warrant Officer of the Navy

email: WO.N@cbr.defence.gov.au

tel: 02 6265 4905