Our People in the ACT
LS Byron Steele
The Canberra born and Portugal-educated Royal Australian Navy Leading Seaman has spent the last six months in the Persian Gulf working with a bewildering variety of aircraft aboard the frigate HMAS Anzac.
LS Steele, 29, was double-hatted as a flight deck marshal and avionics trades supervisor during his recent tour of the Middle East, which ended in December.
“I marshal the aircraft in and control where they land,” LS Steele said.
LS Steele joined the navy in 1999 and spent seven years at HMAS Albatross in Nowra before joining the crew of HMAS Anzac.
The ship deployed to the Persian Gulf to assist in the detection and interception of vessels in Iraqi waters which were suspected of undertaking illegal activities.
No one would accuse LS Steels of leading a dull life.
The son of a world-travelling public servant, he went to high school in Portugal before settling in Wagga.
His naval aviation career has also included time in East Timor and Fiji.
“Over the last year and a half I have marshalled seven or eight types of aircraft … I have done everything from Black Hawks to Pumas,” he said. “I think I was the first Australian serviceman to marshal a British Merlin helicopter on deck.”
In port he and his fellow ‘birdies’ mixed with their US and British counterparts.
“The thing we learned most is how similar the aviation world is… it’s amazing,” he said.
“You get the cultural differences but as far as the working environment goes it’s all the same.”