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Bring
back romance, Gulf letters appeal
More than 10 tonnes of mail delivered to Melbourne
and Arunta
Sailors
serving in The Gulf have appealed to family members, mates and friends
to “put pen to paper” more often to fend off fretting.
The Assistant Editor/Sydney for Navy News has just spent a week
in The Gulf talking with members of the ship’s companies of
HMAS Melbourne and HMAS Arunta and the logistics support personnel
working in the region.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that many RAN personnel do fret for
loved-ones particularly when their deployments extend for five months.
Increased communication between family and sailor would ease the
fretting, sailors said.
“I would like to see more personal letters sent,” one
sailor said. “They should come from not only partners but parents,
grandparents, brothers and sisters.”
Sailors acknowledged they had access to email but suggested that
because the system was monitored, more personal data between husband
and wife could not be exchanged.
“When we get ashore we can make telephone calls to our families
but we have to be very careful about what we say,” one senior
sailor said. “For security reasons we have to be guarded. My
wife asked me when I would call again.
I replied ‘in the same number of days as the age of our daughter’.
I had to talk in personal code so anyone listening in would not
be told when our ship would again call at port.”
Although applauding the ability to use email to communicate home,
sailors pointed out that many homes in Australia do not have computers
let alone have them linked to the internet.
In addition there are many grandparents and older members of the
community who are not computer literate.
Hence the call for those in Australia to go back to the tried and
true method of putting pen to paper and writing letters.
“We love getting letters,” one sailor said.
Sailors said they also appreciated personal packages containing
their favourite sweets, biscuits and toiletries.
Navy News found there is an exceptionally good mail delivery system
operating in The Gulf in the form of the US Navy provided “Desert
Duck” service.
Each morning two USN Sea King helicopters depart Bahrain International
Airport laden with mail, spare parts, civilian technicians and replacement
personnel.
The helicopters fly out to the ships enforcing the United Nations
sanctions on Iraq, landing on and delivering their important cargoes.
More than 10 tonnes of mail were delivered to Melbourne and Arunta
during the months they spent “in country”.
Back in Sydney our Assistant Editor last week attended a gathering
at the Defence Community Organisation attended by Navy wives and
DCO counsellors.
One wife and spouse of a senior deployed officer said personal letters
were a vital method of easing the pain of being apart.
She said private letters can be used for more personal intimacies
than using email or the telephone.
“And don’t forget to sprinkle your favourite perfume on
the letter before you post it. I do always,” the wife recommended.
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