Some days the petty officers just have to ‘jump on the tools’ and show the young bucks how it’s done.

While sailing the Philippine Sea during their regional presence deployment, the senior sailors of HMAS Toowoomba realised that every petty officer on board was flight-deck qualified.

Toowoomba’s fire control systems supervisor Petty Officer Gregoire Soler said that finding out this information led them to head flying stations and create a crack deck team that was exclusively petty officers.

“We wanted to try something we haven’t done before and get all the petty officers together, as we all enjoy it and wanted to do something different outside of our everyday jobs,” Petty Officer Soler said.

While Toowoomba is deployed with a specialist complement of flight crew, deck operators and maintainers, each ship in the fleet has an ‘organic deck team’ that are trained in addition to their specialist duties. This team is made up of volunteers from all rates across the ship.

They are equipped with the skills and knowledge to safely launch and land aircraft on the flight deck, even if a ship is deployed without an embarked flight crew.

'I think it’s important also for the juniors to see senior sailors getting out there and not only having fun, but doing those ancillary duties to help the ship.'

Petty Officer Soler said the senior sailors jumped at the chance to carry out deck operations while a specialist team was on board to provide invaluable training.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a perishable skill, but it’s close to it, if you don’t maintain it,” Petty Officer Soler said.

“If we don’t do things right, bad things can happen. If we are not correctly trained you can damage the helo, or even worse, hurt people.”

Weapons electrical supervisor Petty Officer Hayley Beaumont said it was a welcome opportunity to step beyond her daily role and set a strong example for junior sailors.

“I love doing it. It is something different to my every day, normal role. I think it’s important also for the juniors to see senior sailors getting out there and not only having fun, but doing those ancillary duties to help the ship,” Petty Officer Beaumont said.

She added that by learning the highly specialised skill, it has provided her with a unique perspective on the demands of maintaining and deploying air assets at sea.

“Without being a part of [the] flight deck team, I don’t think I would realise just how many hours they do maintaining the aircraft, on top of how many hours they’ve already spent outside in the cold, heat or elements in general,” Petty Officer Beaumont said.

The MH-60R Seahawk is a robust, reliable and effective platform, which contributes strongly to naval combat power. More than 300 are in service worldwide.