Baby crackles to life

LCDR Alan Moore with wife Simone, daughter Lauren and new son Lawson. Photo: LSPH Dave Connolly

By Graham Davis

Lieutenant Commander Alan Moore was high above the Solomon Islands at the controls of RAN Sea King helicopter Shark 22 when his radio earphones crackled and he was told, “you have a wonderful son.”

Using some of the $12 million state-of-the-art communications fitted to his ship, HMAS Manoora (CMDR Martin Brooker), a telephone call from his wife Simone and family had been patched through from Nowra’s Shoalhaven Hospital maternity wing, to the aircraft.

A few days later fellow aviator LCDR Tanzy Lea took electronic images of the new baby, named Lawson, and sent them to a proud LCDR Moore.

Five days later a video link was arranged and he saw his son moving and cooing.

However, it was a very enthusiastic 817 Squadron pilot who bounded down the brow of his ship at Fleet Base East on November 6, to hold his eight-week-old son in his arms for the first time.

The ship had returned after six months in The Gulf and the Solomons.

He also had big hugs and kisses for wife Simone and their five-year-old daughter Lauren.
Lawson was born on September 2, a day his dad was busy with commitments under Operation Anode.

He had made two telephone calls to the hospital earlier in the day to inquire about his wife’s condition.

“Then I got an assignment,” he recalls.
“I was in the air when I received a call that I had a son,” he said.

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