Meals on the run
Frigate dishing it up in The Gulf

STEADY: Line handlers from HMAS Newcastle pull across the refuelling drogue that the USNS Bridge, an American supply vessel, uses to keep the Australian warship about her duties.

Photo: CPL Robert Nyfennegger

By CPL Cameron Jamieson

Their work is critical to Iraq’s future, but to be honest it could easily send you around the twist. Thank heavens for the Australians from HMAS Newcastle.

On an oil terminal in the northern Persian Gulf are US Navy personnel from Det 25, a security team assigned to protect the Khawr al Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT) from terrorist attack.

KAAOT, and its sister terminal Al Bakr, are Iraq’s sea-based oil terminals, and between them they generate a staggering 80 per cent of Iraq’s foreign income.

The Americans have been assigned to protect them while Iraqi security forces are raised and trained.

KAAOT is a long way from anywhere though, and unless you like eat fish three times a day then all there is to eat are boxes of Meals- Ready-To-Eat.

It’s enough to send you crazy, and that’s where HMAS Newcastle comes in. Newcastle’s galley is providing the Americans with a meals-on-keels service, supplying hot fresh meals each day to the terminal.

LS Troy Barbouttis is responsible for preparing the American’s meals in Newcastle’s galley, and he is happy to cook for the Americans.

“We provide two hot meals a day, and two days a week we also provide a hot breakfast,” he said. “For the other days we supply enough fresh rations to keep them going until the next hot breakfast. “On the 4th of July we sent them a cake and flags for their Independence Day celebration, and that went down well.

“Other ships supply them when we move out of the area, but from what we’ve heard they’re pretty wrapped with our food and I’ve heard nothing but praise from them.”

Officer in Charge (OIC) Det 25 US Navy LEUT (JG) Michael Morse is grateful for the fresh meals supplied to the men and women under his command. “Without the Australians we would have to eat Meals-Ready-To- Eat, which isn’t fun after a while,” he said.

“Fresh rations definitely increase morale, and we enjoy the interaction with the Aussies when they deliver them. But sometimes we’re not really sure what they’ve sent us, so there’s an ongoing joke about us eating emus, kangaroos and dingoes.”

The relationship isn’t all one way though.

The US sailors are happy to host members of Newcastle’s crew onto the terminal, where the Australians can join them for the odd meal.

There’s even the chance to stop into the American’s dining facility, called the Camel Kettle Pub - perhaps another legacy left by the Australians?.

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