really miss the crew here and will have many fond memories of my time here. A special thank you must go to all our civilian staff: Dr. Pushpa Karat, Ms. Sarah Billing (DA), Ms. Kylie Greaves (hygienist), Ms. Karen La Fontaine (hygienist), Dr Rob Hosking, Ms. Malita McCabe (DA), Dr Rob Rogers, and Ms. Maya McDuff (DA). Their efforts are much appreciated and their contributions enable us to carry out our military commitments. What a fabulous job we have done here at 1CSSB Dental in 2009 - well done to all of us!
Dental Platoon 3 CSSB Lavarack Barracks, Townsville, QLD CAPT Thomas van Heumen This year, the crew at 16FD has clocked up one of the busiest time in recent memory. Due to the majority of the Brigade deploying, there were limited exercises planned for the calendar. Activities so far have included EX SEA LION and EX STARLIGHT, with CATA pencilled in for August and September. We traded away our SDO CAPT Karen Such for CAPT Emily Close from the British Army, as part of EX LONGLOOK, leaving CAPT Anthony Craig as the A/SDO for 4 months. We congratulate him on performing an excellent job and keeping the entire team running smoothly, much like his running prowess. We will say farewell to half the platoon this year when SGT Sarah Staggard (congratulations on your promotion) heads back down south to be part of the teaching faculty at HMAS CERBERUS. CAPT Such has been MIA from 3CSSB for the majority of the year with her much anticipated tour of Europe. She will be leaving 3CSSB and returning to university to commence a postgraduate course in oral surgery in Perth. CAPT Craig departs to an undisclosed southern location; he is a regular in the Townsville Bulletin but now dreams of featuring in other prominent newspapers. We would like to wish all of our departing members the very best in their new units. For those staying and soldiering on, WO2 John Flemett has maintained his eagle eye on the unit, CPL Barry’s 4-colour Bic pen, and the heated fantasy league cup (rumoured to be rigged). Congratulations go to LCPL Kerri-Ann Steindl on her promotion and completion of the SDA course. CPL Casey Dor’e has been deployed with the RCB since April and all reports indicate that she is enjoying her time in the wild Malaysian jungle and is doing a wonderful job representing the unit and the Corps. CPL John Kaponay has been the only permanent technician in the laboratory this year and has been flat out keeping up with all the dentists, as well as completing his Subject 1 for SGT. CPL Linda “Bobbi” Barry completed the SDAP course and we congratulate her on achieving the SOM. She is continuing her passionate fight against plaque and smoking. PTE Robin Pitt has a special new addition and no, it is not a tattoo. We extend our congratulations to Robin and Nathan on the arrival of baby Dorothy. There has been a baby boom recently at dental coinciding with an ever growing gambling problem of betting on due dates. The new faces to 3CSSB include 4 DA and 1 dentist. Fresh out of ADFDS are PTE Natasha Tippett, PTE Kristy McMillen, PTE Bob Maddock, and PTE Letisha Mueller. PTE Tippett was tasked with the epic job of oral surgery, keeping her very busy with the administration required. Our youngest (and quite possibly smallest) recruit (though not a gap year), PTE McMillen, assists CAPT Craig. No one warned her that the added task when assisting CAPT Craig is to laugh at his jokes! What Kristy lacks in size, she makes up for with her ‘mane’ of gold locks. PTE Maddock is the new big man of the team who enjoys doing the ‘grapevine’, playing Halo, drinking ‘V’, and wearing shirts that are questionably several sizes too small. PTE Mueller has done a great job helping out in CADMUS 2009
the laboratory and, being the quiet achiever, has ambitions of being selected for technician trade training in the near future. New to the endangered species (dental officers) list is CAPT van Heumen, a recent graduate from UQ who joined us in January and has made the transitional leap from civilian to Army life quite smoothly, working hard at changing radio station preferences and also gaining himself the title of ‘The Tank’ along the way. In March we provided the dental support as part of CSST on EX SEA LION up at Cowley Beach near Innisfail. We had CAPT Craig, CAPT van Heumen, WO2 Flemett, PTE Tippett, PTE Mueller and PTE Maddock on the team. For many it was their first field dental experience. CAPT van Heumen was armed with only a tent pole as he was not yet qualified on the Steyr. We were occupied day and night doing ADE for CSST members, surviving in our shell scrapes through several contacts by the MAF, and playing several rounds of cards. We also took part in EX STARLIGHT, a health company shake out that eventually was condensed into a night sleep-out under the stars on the base. Due to our full books the dental team operated like a ghost in the night. We set up in the dark and were packed up ready for work before most of the others had even woken up. CATA at high range will be our next exercise. In April, as part of LONGLOOK, we farewelled CAPT Such and welcomed CAPT Close. Many were upset to lose CAPT Such, the socialite of the platoon but it was quickly realised that CAPT Close was more than a fair trade. In a nutshell CAPT Close is Irish but has lived much of her life in Scotland, and is in the British Army working on a base in Germany. During her time here, she has visited many of the sites up and down the East coast of Australia. She recently teamed up with CAPT Amanda Leen from 1HSB on a week long tour of Weipa treating the local indigenous people. CAPT Close left Australia at the end of July and we will hopefully be seeing the return of CAPT Such. A big thank you deservedly goes to CAPT Leen, PTE Lauren Morgan and SGT Ken Locker who visited 3CSSB to provide us with crucial support during the year. A special mention must go to our visiting maxillofacial specialists, Professor Bob Jones and Dr Geoff Dance, for their assistance. We thank all of our permanent and temporary Aspen colleagues for their valuable services and hard work: Dr Adrian Buell, Dr Mary Love, Dr Vaishali Patel, Dr Paul Ichim, Dr Alan Martin, Dr Andrew Harrold, Lisa Hamblin, Sarah Stapleton, Carly Fredrickson, Lesley Turner, Renee Judd, Bianca Wheldon, and Sally Whittaker. We congratulate Carly and John on the arrival of baby Lucas as well as Sarah with Troy and Lesley with Steve on the upcoming new arrivals. May the rest of 2009 bring even more excitement and challenges for the crew of 16FD.
Dental Platoon 7 CSSB, 2 HSB and JHSA Gallipoli Barracks, Brisbane, QLD 7 CSSB LCPL Jo Theobald A year later and we are still living it up in this glorious state enjoying the sunshine, the fresh crisp air, and of course 7CSSB. Once again another busy year was forecast - in between clinical time at GBDC and field exercises we weren’t quite sure what to expect! Thank you goes to 2HSB, JHSA and the wonderful civilian contractors for sharing the load. The start of the year saw a new 7CSSB Dental team consisting of LTCOL Suzy Atkins, CAPT Mick Robinson, the good old WO2 Mark Gorman, CPL Robert Pike, LCPL Jo Theobald, and PTE Brendan Zhang. We farewelled 2 of our favourite members - SGT Tracey Feillafe and CPL Zac Wilson. Both were a breath of fresh
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