Marriage a meeting of the minds

LCDR Rushworth, LCDR Williams, LCDR Edwards and LCDR Hannah aboard HMAS Labuan.

LCDR Darren Rushworth, the commanding officer of the heavy landing craft HMAS Labuan, invited three of his mates to a ‘wedding’ just recently.

They were LCDR Jeff Williams, CO of Brunei, LCDR Mitch Edwards, CO of Wewak and LCDR Dave Hannah, CO of Tarakan.

The opportunity arose when, in a rare event, all four Cairns-based landing craft were alongside at once.

Even rarer was the ability to get the commanding officers of the four vessels out to sea on the one ship.

It came about when Darren invited the trio to sea for a stern door marriage between Labuan and HMAS Tobruk off the north Queensland coast.

As there were a few hours to kill before the rendezvous with Tobruk, the four lieutenant commanders held an impromptu amphibious warfare forum.

They exchanged ideas and compared methods used on their own ships.

When it was time to conduct the marriage, Darren put on a first class show in an awkward swell, failing light and persistent rain squalls.

All agreed it was a rewarding day.

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