Navy bulldogs halt flow

“Whenever the plot board shows the Australian ships on the move they say ‘there go the bulldogs again’ ”

Senior US Navy personnel have labelled HMA Ships Melbourne and Arunta “bulldogs” for halting the flow of illegal oil from Iraq.

“You have worked damn hard and you have shut down the smuggling of oil in the region,” the Maritime Commander, RADM Raydon Gates said last week.

His remarks came during a ‘clear lower deck’ in Melbourne as she continued to patrol the northern reaches of The Gulf in support of the UN sanctions against Iraq and the War Against Terrorism.

RADM Gates offered the same remarks a day later when he addressed the ship’s company of Arunta, also patrolling The Gulf.

RADM Gates and the Command Warrant Officer David Baker went to the region to talk with the ships, the Logistic Support Element, the Coalition Task Group and senior members of other Coalition assets in The Gulf.

MC told the officers and sailors of both RAN ships: “we are going through very dynamic times”.

He said the Bali terrorist attack had had the same sort of effect on Australians as September 11 had had on Americans.

“There are four phases of effect,” he said.

“The first is the initial shock and disbelief as Australians came to realise that terrorism was on our doorstep.

“The next phase was sorrow.”

At this point the Maritime Commander asked each of the ship’s companies how many were Western Australians.

He then pointed out that more than 5000 people had attended a memorial service in the WA town of Kingsley where seven of a 20-man football team had failed to come home after the Bali attack.

“The third phase is who did it?...Who put this together?”

RADM Gates said the fourth phase was “do something about it”.

“This is not just war against terrorism in New York or Bali. It is global. You are contributing to the war against terrorism,” he told the sailors and their officers.

RADM Gates took Australian Active Service Medals with him for presentation to those now serving there.
“Wear them with pride,” he said.

With RADM Gates was CAPT Peter Sinclair, a senior RAN officer who is the commander of the Coalition Task Group charged with patrolling The Gulf and enforcing the UN sanctions against Iraq.

Of the Australians in the operation he told Navy News, “I am terribly proud of them.

“They are just amazing young people. They are focussed, tuned in and get on with the job and with multiskilling they take to it like ducks to water,” CAPT Sinclair said.

The Command Warrant Officer, David Baker told of the high esteem senior US personnel held for the Australians.

He told of that esteem after he visited counterparts, the Acting 5th Fleet Master Chief Edward D Lavieri Jnr and Command Master Chief for the Naval Support Activity (NSA) Phil White.

WO Baker said the Americans had dubbed Melbourne and Arunta the “bulldogs”.

“Whenever the plot board shows the Australian ships on the move they say ‘there go the bulldogs again’,” WO Baker said.

The name is well earned because the ships have done one-tenth of all Coalition boardings this year.

Because of their smaller size and the enhanced skills of their boarding parties, compared with other ships in the Coalition, the RAN ships have been able to get far into the northern Gulf and patrol just outside the KAA, the waterway leading away from Iraq.

The Maritime Commander arrived “in country” at a time when there was a sharp increase in the number of dhows trying to break out of the KAA and carry cargoes, almost entirely dates, to ports further to the south.

In one 24-hour period Melbourne’s boarding parties did 13 boardings.

To cope with the extra workload Arunta had increased its boarding parties to five.

As MCAUST was returning to Australia, both ships were vying to see who would do the most number of boardings for the time they had been deployed.

It was neck and neck on a daily basis with each on 230.

Melbourne and Arunta are due back in Australia in December, replaced by Darwin and Anzac.

Some members of the LSE and CTG are also coming home.

And what do the ship’s masters think of the work done by the RAN ships in upholding the UN sanctions?

In a few words.... “It’s warship o-Five —- Oh no”.

• From Graham Davis, in The Gulf
  

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