Sailor fire-fighting fit

FLAMIN’ GOOD: POMT John Young with the Bradley Meek Perpetual Shield.

Photo: LA Owen King (RN)

By ABPH Kade Rogers

CDRE Matt Tripovich presented the Bradley Meek Perpetual Shield to POMT John Young at the RAN School of Survivability and Ships’ Safety at HMAS Stirling recently.

The Bradley Meek Perpetual Shield is presented to the best RANSSSS instructor in memory of LS Bradley Meek who perished in the 1997 HMAS Westralia engine room fire, and encompasses all RANSSSS at HMAS Creswell, HMAS Cerberus and HMAS Stirling.

Instructors who specialise in keeping sailors up to date in fire fighting and damage control techniques at HMAS Stirling have won the award three times in the last four years.

‘It’s a strange, almost humbling feeling’ – POMT Young “I don’t see it as an award as such, I see it as more like the honouring of a greater memory.”

-POMT Young said.

POMT Young was serving on HMAS Canberra awaiting a rendezvous with Westralia when the incident occurred.

“We were sitting off the coast of Surabaya and we were supposed to meet Westralia in a couple of days,” It’s a time that will always remain in POMT Young’s mind.

“The day of the fire was my wedding anniversary believe it or not,” recalls POMT Young.

The RANSSSS instructors at HMAS Stirling are responsible for the fire fighting and damage control training of personnel onboard all western based ships and much of the patrol boat fleet based in Darwin.

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