By
Graham Davis
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Chief
Petty Officer Clearance Diver Gavin Stevens in a more relaxed
mood after his efforts in The Gulf last year were rewarded
with a Commendation for Distinguished Service which was
presented by NSW Governor Professor Marie Bashir.
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Photo:
Phil Barling
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Anyone
laying down his weapon, removing his bullet proof vest then walking
barefoot and naked except for his camouflage shirt, across an
Iraqi desert in wartime, would, under normal circumstances, find
himself up on a charge.
Not so for Petty Officer Clearance Diver Gavin Stevens.
It was his bare feet, half-nakedness and skills that kept him
alive and possibly prevented the downing of helicopters operating
from HMAS Kanimbla (CMDR Stephen Woodall) in the northern Persian
Gulf.
A few days ago, Gavin’s actions saw the Governor of NSW, Professor
Marie Bashir, pin the red Commendation for Distinguished Service
ribbon to his chest in an award ceremony at Government House.
He was one of 30 Australian Defence Force personnel to receive
awards on the day.
Gavin, promoted to chief petty officer on March 1 and named the
chief instructor of Maritime Tactical Operations, centred at HMAS
Penguin, was one of 32 RAN clearance divers sent to the Middle
East in early 2003 for Operation Falconer.
When Coalition forces moved into Iraq in early March, Gavin and
his colleagues went with them.
“The Royal Marines asked us to clear any unexploded ordnance along
the Al Faw Peninsula, the area in which they were operating,”
Gavin told Navy News.
“On the first day we were driving down the road a few hundred
metres in from the water looking for stuff. “There were eight
of us in two Landrovers. I was in charge. There was a tap on the
roof of the vehicle from AB John Jarvis.
He is from the bush and has a sharp eye. He had seen something
in the distance.
“We stopped and using binoculars I saw a sea mine about 1.5 metres
long. It was lying in the open on a claypan.How it got there remains
a mystery.
“I declared a two kilometre ‘no go’ zone and collected some tools
and went forward. “I got to within 25 metres of the mine and
saw that it was reasonably new but had been damaged.”
“Again using the binoculars I realised there was a problem.
This mine was special.
It carried a seismic, [could be triggered by heavy footsteps]
magnetic [could triggered by close proximity to metal] and acoustic
[could be triggered by loud noise] detonator.
Gavin retreated and made contact with his superiors in HMAS Kanimbla
advising of the danger particularly to the helicopters operating
from the ship and flying over the area in support of Coalition
forces.
That fear was that a noisy metallic aircraft might detonate the
mine sending shrapnel skywards and potentially bringing it down.
The decision was made to destroy the device. He knew he had to
remove all metal objects from his person.
“I took my boots off because of the metal eyelets. I took my trousers
and underpants off because of metal fastenings, even removed my
wedding ring.
All I wore was my tee shirt and camo shirt”.
Gavin returned to the danger area vintage mine getting a large
thorn in his foot on the way. Walking gingerly and softly, he
went to the mine and laid two packs of explosives beside it.
“Then I walked away running out 30 metres of red cord [explosive
cord].
“I walked the way I had come in. I didn’t want to risk walking
through a mine field.”
At the end of the 30 metres of detonation cord, Gavin attached
a detonator that would be activated by a radio transmitter when
he was back at the vehicles.
With the area still well cordoned off, he activated the detonator,
which ignited the cord and finally the packs of explosive.
“There was a very large explosion, flash of flame, grey and black
smoke, the lot,” he said.
Over the three months the divers did scores of ordnance destruction
jobs. Their work saw AUSCDTTHREE receive the Meritorious Unit
Citation from Governor Bashir.
The commanding officer of the team, LCDR Scott Craig received
the Distinguished Service Medal.
Several other RAN personnel received awards and these will be
featured in the next edition of Navy News.
