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NAVY NEWS, MAY 2001
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Falklands patrol ship ends long absence
Foot and mouth: Navy is called in to help
FOR THE first time in over three years HMS Dumbarton Castle has entered her home port. The Castle-class ship returned to Portsmouth on April 9 after a spell of duty as Falkland Islands patrol vessel which began in 1998.
OVER 120 Royal Navy personnel are among British Service people who have been called in to help the Ministry of Agriculture in the battle against foot-and-mouth. Most will be involved in logistic and command and control tasks needed for the swift disposal of carcases, but a few have been trained to slaughter animals. A spokeswoman for the Navy at Devonport told Navy News that a small number of ratings had responded to a call for volunteers to train as slaughterers. She said: "Training takes a day and our call for volunteers is a response to a Ministry of Agriculture request for assistance in that area. If Service people are called on to help with the slaughter programme, they will use exactly the same procedures as those recognised by the Ministry of Agriculture." Eighty RN personnel from Portsmouth have been deployed to foot-andmouth affected areas in Wales, while 40 - including sailors from Bath and Scotland - have been deployed from Devonport to the Exeter area. Initially it is expected that the Service helpers will be deployed for up to four weeks. Meanwhile, the Armed Forces Minister John Spellar announced on April 6 that the Services were resuming training at 21 specially selected areas across the UK. Since February 23 all military training areas had been closed to anything other than operationally essential training. The turn-around has come after detailed discussions with experts and
local farmers. All troops will, however, carry out full disinfencting measures and where necessary special fences will be put up to keep livestock out of contact with troops.
• The last wave ... Sailors on HMS Dumbarton Castle's flight deck mark their homecoming in joyous style as the ship (top) enters Portsmouth to a big welcome from families and friends. Pictures: LA(PHOT) Angle Pearce
During that time, her complement of 52 were trickle-drafted, so that each member of the ship's company served for an average of six months. Longest-serving member on board has been away since September 1999. She was relieved on station as the only permanent RN presence in the Falkland Islands, by her sister-ship HMS Leeds Castle. Like Dumbarton Castle before her, she will be supported by a small Naval engineering party. During the past three years, Dumbarton Castle visited many remote settlements to show the flag. She also acted as a radar picket and re-supplied Army outposts and British Antarctic Scientists on South Georgia, 800 miles from the Falklands. There were many opportunities for sport - and for adventurous training in the challenging climate and topography. On a more sombre note, members of her ship's company visited
RN gains ten gallantry awards for Sierra Leone operation
RIVER-OF-DANGER CAPTAIN WINS DSC A FRIGATE Commanding Officer who showed "outstanding gallantry" in negotiating difficult and dangerous waters in Sierra Leone last year has been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
The award to Capt George Zambcllas of HMS Chatham is
one of ten for Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel who have taken part in operations in the troubled West African republic. The awards were announced on April 6 in an Operational Honours List for members of the Armed Forces. Chatham, a Type 22 warship, was one of the Royal Navy vessels deployed in summer of last year to
help stem a rebel advance on the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown. As part of the peace-keeping operation - codcnamed Palliser -
Chatham landed Royal Marines and provided gunfire support. But
because of the shallow seabed
close inshore, she had to negotiate the uncharted Sierra Leone River
to bring her 4.5in gun within effective range.
The ship had to spend several nights working her way up river, guided by a small party of RN hydrographers. The citation for the award of
the DSC to Capt Zambcllas referred to his "leadership of the highest order and outstanding personal gallantry in the face of danger to both his ship and its company." Capt Zambellas said of the operation: "My team were well trained for this... and provided excellent support to the amphibious group as
He recently left HMS Chatham and is now on course at the Joint
Command and Staff College at Shrivcnham. Other awards for Sierra Leone operations include a Queen's Gallantry Medal for Major Phil Ashby RM, who led an escape through the jungle by three British
officers last year. Maj Ashby, with colleagues Lt Cdr Paul Rowland and Army Major Andrew Samsonoff, were unarmed observers with UN forces in Sierra
Leone when they were captured by Revolutionary United Front forces in May.
Sir Alan West -
of the frigates that operated off Sierra Leone, there was
HQ with his national and NATO operations staffs.
As a landing platform for Army
• Royal Navy ratings are briefed at HMS Drake in Plymouth before being deployed on April 7 to
help in the fight against foot-and-mouth.
Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service. Six other QCVS awards have been listed for Op Palliser. They are for the Navy's seagoing commander for the operation, Commodore Niall Kilgour (Commander UK Amphibious Task Group); the CO of the helicopter assault ship HMS Ocean, Capt Scott Lidbetter; the commander of the ship's Air Group, Lt Cdr Frederick Robertson; Col Andy Salmon who led 42 Cdo ashore; Ocean's Weapons Engineer Officer, Lt Cdr Simon Atkinson; and Lt Cdr Henry Mitchell, CO of 801 Sea Harrier Squadron which provided support from HMS Illustrious. For other operations Naval per-
would
remain at the Northwood
an OBE.
operation, has been awarded the
PLANS to concentrate the bulk of the Royal Navy's Fleet headquarters at Portsmouth have reached the consultation stage.
Under the plan, C-in-C Fleet - currently Admiral
For Cdr Rick Wellesley, CO of HMS Argyll, another
Surgeon Lt Jon Carty, the ship's doctor who was sent ashore to provide primary medical care for the
Pompey to be the new centre for bulk of the Fleet's HQ The Ministry of Defence foresees the relocation of those parts of the Fleet HQ that provide training, warfare requirements, programming and resource management for the front line. Staff moving from Northwood in Middlesex and RN air station Yeovilton would join Fleet personnel already in Portsmouth to increase posts there. Overall, more than 260 Service posts will disappear from the HQ staff, but they will be redeployed elsewhere. There will be an increase of nine RFA personnel, but a net total of 91 civilian posts arc expected to go.
well as the troops ashore."
helicopters, his ship played a key role in the rescue of 11 British soldiers and a Sierra Leone officer who had been kidnapped by a rebel group last autumn.
the 1982 battlefields and ensured that the memorials were in good repair. Shortly before leaving for home, six men on board started a sponsored "upside down head" competition in which they grew beards while keeping their heads bald. As a result the ship's charity - the Special Care Baby Unit at the Vale of Leven Hospital, Dumbarton benefited by £1,100, averaging a £21 contribution by each member of the ship's company. On their 9,000-mile journey home, Dumbarton Castle called on Brazil, Guyana and Trinidad - and in Brazil a victory by the ship's football team enabled them to claim to be the first RN side ever to beat the Brazilian Naval Academy. After a five-month upkeep period at Rosylh, the ship will begin a new role as a tasking authority platform for mine countermeasures. • British Forces withdraw from South Georgia - page 8.
• Capt George Zambellas outstanding gallantry in the face of danger.
sonnel receive three QCVS awards. One goes to Capt Leslie Coupland, CO of RFA Fort George in the Mozambique flood relief operation; and two arc awarded to RN people who last year took part in Operation Bolton - the UK response to tension in the Gulf. They are Lt Cdr Michael Dreclan, Operations Officer of the frigate HMS Monmouth; and
CPO Paul Flower who led the ship's boarding teams on interdiction operations in support of UN sanctions. One non-operational award appears on the list - going to Gibraltar-based Diver Barry George who "showed extreme courage, presence of mind and skill" in an attempt to save a crane driver whose vehicle had toppled off the Rock's harbour mole. • Full list-page 41.
The transfer, planned to begin in about a year's time, will draw together the administration of
the Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary, Naval aviation and
Submarine and Surface Flotillas into a single, integrated HQ. The
Permanent Joint HQ Northwood is unaffected.
at
The consultation process with trade unions was announced at
the end of March by Armed Forces Minister John Spellar. It will continue until May 15 by which the unions and others with an interest have been asked to give their views.
Mr Spellar said the rationalisation will create a HQ more responsive to this century's demands.
He said: "The C-in-C carries out a very diverse range of maritime operations, and by removing duplication, and streamlining business practices in his headquarters, the Royal Navy will be better placed to remain at the cutting edge of the world's navies."