SMA.NET LOOKING BACK

perceive our fighting tribe. With the right permission –take time out in the month to call whānau and supporters and tell them about their soldier’s recent efforts, promotions and special activities further in the calendar year. While this close duty of care wanes with age and longer experience our new and younger members’ whānau will be keen to hear what’s going on with a cross-section of soldiers working in our units.

For soldiers in the barracks, in garrison, or on the town streets – talk to your leaders. Extend a gesture of acknowledgement and don’t be afraid to engage with them. Shift Thinking –Stronger Teams.

Eighty years ago New Zealanders were in the thick of the WWII Guadalcanal-Solomon Islands Campaign. The 3 New Zealand Division, 2 NZEF was dispatched to New Caledonia between November 1942 and February 1943. There it underwent months of intensive training in jungle warfare and amphibious operations.

Although New Zealand forces only constituted a very small part of the Allied forces engaged in the Guadalcanal-Solomon Islands campaign they represented a major effort by New Zealand.