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| SEACHANGE - Careers opening up By CMDR Guy Blackburn Edition 5006, April 19, 2007 |
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My answer to that was that I looked upon it firstly as a challenge, and secondly, as a way of opening up a whole new career path as a senior sailor on a MWV. Lacking any previous experience in navigation, I had my first taste of very basic navigation while studying for a coxswain’s ticket in the early 1990s. Not long after this, as a Petty Officer, I had the opportunity to take up a posting as XO on the Torpedo Recovery Vessel (TRV) Trevally which, up until the late nineties, was crewed and operated by Australian Navy personnel. However, prior to taking up this posting I had to complete the seven week Small Ship’s Navigation Course (SSNC) at the Navigation Faculty at HMAS Watson. After successfully completing the course I took up my posting and thoroughly enjoyed the next two and a half years. It was also during this period that I was awarded a minor fleet unit senior sailors bridge watchkeeping certificate. Once bitten by the Navigation bug, I wanted to go further and completed the seven week Intermediate Navigation Course in late 2000. This course provided the foundation for my eventual selection for command of MSA Wallaroo as a Warrant Officer. During 2006 I sat for my Navigation Watchkeeping Certificate (NWC) at HMAS Watson. At the beginning of 2007 I was appointed as an officer with the rank of Lieutenant. I am currently undertaking XO Desig course, afterwards posting to Ardent Five Crew as the XO. My aspirations in the medium term is to Command an ACPB. For Senior Sailors, the Navigation stream provides far greater opportunities than ever before. Commencing with the SSNC, senior sailors and senior leading seaman, now have an excellent opportunity to learn the art of navigation at a basic level and are able to utilize those skills as a bridge watchkeeper on a minor war vessel such as hydrographic survey ships. During the Fremantle Class Patrol Boat era, once a Senior Sailor had completed their posting there was no future career progression down the navigation searoad. With the ACPB’s now online, Senior Sailors have the opportunity to progress their navigational skills. and remain streamed to minor war vessels as senior sailors or if so inclined, as a commissioned officer. Do you hear there! Q) From PO Jolly Roger: Why is it that internet and email outages seem to occur mainly at the weekend whilst deployed. Email/Internet is not always available alongside. Information that is posted onto Navy websites is not freely available due to the inability to gain access to the sites. A) From Fleet Information System Support Office: In your home, you might be accessing the internet via high-speed broadband. At sea you might have 50 users all trying to send information at the one time over a much thinner and more unreliable connection. Currently, ships in the Middle East Area of Operation (MEAO) deploy with Extra High Speed Data (EHSD) which can provide only 25% of at home broadband speed that you would be used to. Over this, the CIS team usually pass three networks, which means that the rest of the ship might be allocated only a small amount of the total capability for everything that passes off the ship. SMLs and LCHs get e-mail over an even smaller connection than large ships. Their connection can be slower than normal dial up connection speed - very different from the average users home experience. This is the reason why e-mail attachments are limited, and surfing the internet is difficult at sea. Things are changing. There are a number of new projects delivering new capability in the near term. Bandwidth is set to improve and ships can expect to be permanently connected in the future. The number of terminals onboard are also growing steadily easing access issues. This will take time, and unfortunately it is unlikely to be as fast, reliable, rich or unfettered as your experience of systems ashore. |
