Hydro staff put their names on the map

THREE AMIGOS: WOHSMs Jeff Langham, Kevin Howlett and Brett Brett Bennett in Cairns recently. Photo: LCDR John Sperring.

By LCDR John Sperring

It’s been a period of high activity for the Navy’s hydrographic personnel over the past few months.
The Maritime Commander RADM Davyd Thomas, visited HMFEG HQ recently as part of his familiarisation of his new command.

The primary aims of the visit were to receive briefings from HMFEG executive to familiarise himself with the current status of the FEG, tour the Australian Hydrographic Office facility and meet staff.

CANHMG (and Hydrographer of Australia) CAPT Rod Nairn, also gave RADM Thomas a tour of the hydrographic historical collection which is open to the public and on display in the foyer of the facility.
The Australian Hydrographic Office has on public display a sizable collection of antique navigation and surveying equipment dating back to the 1800s.

On display are oil paintings and photographs of past hydrographic and oceanographic ships, rare charts, drawings and gifts from various international hydrographers.
In other news, the HMFEG Hydrographic, Meteorological and Oceanographic FEG was certified as a quality endorsed
company under ISO 9001:2000.

This is a major achievement for the RAN and the HMFEG as the certification is against an internationally recognised quality benchmark that will be regularly and rigorously tested by auditors.

The HMFEG has been certified for the production and distribution of nautical charting products and services, and the support provided to the Hydrographic Survey Force to enable data acquisition.

In addition, there was a recent occasion where three “Droggie” Warrant Officers with 81 years Naval service were in the same place at the same time.
WO Kevin Howlett (31 years experience), newly promoted WO Jeff Langham (26 years), and WO Brett Bennett (24 years) met up at HMAS Cairns recently.

All three careers in the RAN have criss-crossed over the years. Operational service for the three has involved surveys in Antarctica to Arnhem Land through to Timor Leste, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Bougainville and most recently Banda Aceh Indonesia.

.