By LS Rachel Irving
For at least one Army mum, mother’s day this year was more than a world away from her family.

Sgt Denise Armstrong is an embarked forces supervisor onboard HMAS Kanimbla patrolling the Northern Arabian Waterways in the Middle East.

Her 15-year old daughter is with Sgt Armstrong’s mum and dad in Nowra, NSW.

“I’m a single mum, so it’s been pretty hard, but I have an excellent mum and dad who have given me the opportunity to do this part of my Army career,” she said.

“My daughter is coping pretty hard with the situation. She got used to us being in Afghanistan last year but when we got sent to war she found that pretty hard. But her schoolmates and her school have really helped her through.

“The fact that we have e-mail and the Parakeet phone has really made a big difference. It has cut down the time and distance between us and whenever I’m down in the dumps I can just ring her and see how she’s going.”

Sgt Armstrong has a busy job on board Kanimbla.

“My role is to embark all the forces onboard the ship, allocate their racks and basically become their liaison officer throughout their trip. On our current trip, at one stage we had 112 coalition force members on board.”

There are 44 Army members currently onboard Kanimbla, including members of the Ship’s Army Detachment (SAD), an RBS70 detachment, embedded communicators and members of Kanimbla’s flight deck crew. Further in port are the LCM8s.

When Sgt Armstrong is not looking after the troops, she helps the Termites, cargo specialists, with the loading and unloading of the ship.

“This is my second year at sea, in fact I’m just about coming to the end of my term. It’s been different, very different. I’ve had to learn how to do things the Navy way.

The Army has its way of business, but naturally Navy had its way, as to be expected.

She said that some Army members have adjusted really easily to Navy life but some have struggled.

“Just trying to relax is the hardest thing we’ve found, that way of life.

“Most of them would love to get back to the regiment, get back on the land – that’s why they selected Army over Navy.

“It’s pretty hard.”

For most of the SAD, this is a two-year voluntary draft, though for aviation members it can be three or four years.

Other ships Army can volunteer to serve in are HMAS Tobruk and HMAS Manoora.

“For most of us, we will go home in July, have a few weeks break and then sail again with the ship for Exercise Crocodile 03.

At the end of October many of us will clear our leave and handover to our replacements onboard.”

Sgt Armstrong said the operation has been extremely busy for SAD. Although it is quieter now, when the ship was working with coalition forces, SAD members were literally working 24/7, loading RHIBs (Rigid Hard Inflatable Boat) on and off Kanimbla, and keeping roughly nine coalition RHIBs working.

Sgt Armstrong said she was looking forward to her return to Australia to see her daughter.

“It will be good to get home and see grass and trees again.”

And when asked if she would do another sea posting – “Of course I would. It’s fantastic.”

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