Features
Bridging the Gulf


Volume 50, No.2, February 22, 2007
 
 
HERE’S DADDY: Leading Seaman Electronic Technician Joshua Stagg, was keen to depart the ship and greet his wife and child, who was born while he was away on deployment to the Persian Gulf.
Photo: ABPH Nadia Monteith
 
ON A WAVE: Familiar faces line the wharf at Fleet Base West for the arrival of HMAS Warramunga.
Photo: ABPH Nadia Monteith
 
KISSES: AB McNaboe and partner Luke reunite after a long six months apart.
Photo: ABPH Nadia Monteith
 
HMAS Warramunga returned to Fleet Base West on February 2 after a successful six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf. Navy News’ reporter RACHEL IRVING was part of the crowd that helped to welcome her home.

There were plenty of tears of joy when HMAS Warramunga arrived home from the Persian Gulf on February 2, but none more special than those shared by one Leading Seaman and his wife.

Second across the gangway, LSET Joshua Stagg, was happy to be back in the arms of wife Heather, but it was meeting his son, eight-week-old Oliver, for the first time, which gave the homecoming new meaning.

Describing the moment of meeting Oliver as “unbelievable”, LS Stagg held his son, who was oblivious to the significance of the event.

“I promised myself I wouldn’t cry but that’s a promise I couldn’t keep. It’s great to be home and to be a family for the first time,” LS Stagg said.

“Everybody does deployments, trips or things in their life for certain reasons, and everything I did on this trip was for my wife and my son. Everything I did, every action, was for these two. Now it’s time to stay at home and be a family.”

Coincidentally, LS Stagg was one of six members of the ship’s company who became fathers while Warramunga was on deployment in the Persian Gulf. The other five had the opportunity to fly back to their partners as part of the Navy’s flexi-crewing trial, and were waiting on the wharf in Fremantle to wave in their ship mates.

Warramunga arrived home to hundreds of friends and families, after 186 days on rotation in the Persian Gulf. The ship’s Commanding Officer, CMDR John Hielscher, summed up the feeling of the day when he said, “Fremantle looks beautiful this morning – a lot better than it did six months ago when it was in our wake and we were leaving it over the horizon.”

Enormously proud of his officers and sailors, CMDR Hielscher said, “To see everyone home today, after six months away, I am very proud of them. We achieved everything we needed to.”

Warramunga’s key task was to protect Iraq’s oil platforms, from which approximately eighty per cent of the country’s revenue is generated.

Addressing the ship’s company, Deputy Fleet Commander, Commodore Ray Griggs, said, “Our operations are often demanding and dangerous and require the highest standards of professionalism and vigilance and your recent mission to the Northern Persian Gulf required relentless application of both of these.

“Your task of protecting the Iraqi oil platforms was a super-critical one, maintaining the economic lifeline that has assisted the Iraqi people in rebuilding their country.”

Warramunga now enters a maintenance period while the crew will train and prepare for their next period at sea.