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Navy News JUNE 1992
Marines fall for Michelle
30p
Keeping fit is a ruling passion for Peterborough beauty Michelle Egginton (27) which makes her an ideal choice as this year's Miss Globe and Laurel. She will join the Royal Marines for climbing, abseiling, unarmed combat and shooting demonstrations, winding up her term with a freefall parachute jump with the RM team — the current British champions. Picture — PO(Phot) Ash Amliwala, HQTRF RM
ION TO Thin on Nukes on top of the world — HMS Trenchant meets up with USS Spadefish for a now regular rendezvous at the North Pole. The ice where they cut through was too thin for the usual games of cricket and baseball — not due to global warming, the Meteorological Office assures us ... D
icture — Sgl Rick Brcwell. RAF
FORTY-EIGHT Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines flew out to Cambodia last month to form the main part of British naval support for a United Nations peackeeping force. The day before their departure Armed Forces Minister Archie Hamilton called on them at HMS Nelson where they had been receiving instruction on working in jungle conditions. "I'm sorry you've had to go economy class," he quipped as examined the piles of survival kit brought out for his inspection. Capt. Tim Daniels, leading the RM contingent — all but two of the party are volunteers — explained that they would be flying first to Bangkok and then on to Cambodia in a French
military aircraft. There they would act as military observers in Cambodianmanned patrol craft, wearing the distinctive blue beret of the United Nations as members of UNTAC — the UN Transitional Authority of Cambodia which will supervise the ceasefire and demobilisation of the country's various armed factions over the next 18 months.
The naval party's primary task would be to patrol rivers and coastal waters, said Capt. Daniels. "During the rainy season the waterways around the Mekong River and Lake Tonle Sap provide about the only way of getting around the country. Our jungle training in Brunei has given some of us experience of similar conditions so I hope we can help smooth the way for a return to stability." The men — there are no women in the party at present — would not be armed. "The UN is operating under the approval of all the interested factions so we expect health and hygiene will be our main enemies — that and unexploded ordnance." There would be no direct involvement in mine clearance, although a multi-national unit commanded by the UK was training the Cambodians in the necessary techniques. When fully deployed UNTAC will be over 20,000 strong and include more than 15,000 military personnel. Around 40 nations have offered to participate. UK personnel will serve six month tours with the naval group based at Phnom Penh. • Piracy is on the increase in the South China Sea with a number of attacks on Britishflagged merchantmen during recent months. The Ministry of Defence commented: "All RN and RFA vessels are aware of their powers and responsibilities under international law in relation to piracy and would take action, where appropriate, anywhere in the world. "We continue to revise what further contributions we can make to the war against piracy worldwide." The massive scale of piracy in the Far East is highlighted in the National Maritime Museum's highly acclaimed summer exhibition "Pirates: Fact and Fiction" w h i c h opened last month.
Air Force Medal for Navy man NAVY photographer CPO(Phot) Keith Sturge has been awarded the RAF's highest peacetime gallantry award, the Air Force Medal, for his heroic action last August during a helicopter rescue operation in the South China Sea. At the time Keith was working with the Joint Services Public Relations Unit at Hong Kong and was in an RAF helicopter to film the search for survivors after an oil exploration rig had sunk in a typhoon. Five men were spotted clinging to a life-raft in the stormy waters. The RAF winchman went down into the sea four times, each time bringing up a survivor — but with just one man left below he was too exhausted from the buffeting waves and from ingesting seawater to carry on.
Although having had no training as a winchman, Keith volunteered to go down and try to get the remaining man to safety — "I just couldn't leave him down there" he said. The pilot reluctantly agreed to allow a last attempt and Keith managed to secure the man — in spite of being swamped and ending up under the raft — and brought him up into the aircraft.
Palace Keith, now based at HMS Warrior, Northwood, will receive his award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace.