Trainees flown in

Auckland’s COVID-19 restrictions during August meant some juggling for the arrival of this year’s second intake of Basic Common Trainees.

The usual pattern of arrival involves recruits arriving at the gates at Devonport Naval Base on a Sunday, often with their parents, to be processed by Defence Recruiting and welcomed onto the base.

But with New Zealand at Level 2, and Auckland at Level 3 at the time, entry into Auckland needed to be more controlled. An RNZAF Boeing 757 was tasked to collect 36 recruits from Dunedin, Christchurch, Blenheim and Wellington, while buses were put on to collect around 30 recruits from the remaining North Island regions. Recruits within Auckland and Manukau were also picked up by bus.

In all, 103 recruits made up the initial numbers of the BCT 20/02 intake.

Sanaa Tupuivao, 18, could appreciate the differences, as it was her second time entering Basic Common Training. During week five of BCT 20/01 she broke her finger, meaning she had to withdraw. This was all before COVID-19 arrived in New Zealand.

“I was really disappointed to leave,” she says, speaking from Wellington. “It’s not just about not finishing, but leaving all my mates. You make good friends. But the staff were really good. They encouraged me to come back and I knew I was going to. I’m really excited to get back into it.”

William Matheson, 23, is a former Air and Army cadet and guessed they’d be flown to Auckland. “How else were we going to go up during Level 3?” He was excited about the training ahead. “You never know what happens until you get there.”

Hillary Holland, 19, will enter the chef trade after BCT. “I was over the moon to be selected,” she says. “It was a bit frustrating with dates being pushed around, but you understood why.” She doesn’t know what training will be like, and was excited and nervous. She had wanted to be a chef since she was young, and is already well-prepared, having done Level 3 cookery at Weltec. “This is a new chapter in life.”

With social gatherings in public still at a minimum, the attestation ceremony – normally at the Navy Museum – was held in the hangar of HMNZS AOTEAROA. In front of the Chief of Navy, the recruits declared an oath to the Royal New Zealand Navy, receiving an entirely waterproof Bible if they wished, and returned to barracks to sign their attestation forms.

The natural establishment of training classes, or messdecks, lends itself to ‘bubbles’ of up to 20 recruits each. This was utilised to a high degree by the previous 2020 intake during the Level 4 lockdown, with instructors maintaining social distancing and wearing Personal Protective Equipment. Under Auckland’s Level 2 status, this intake will also function in classes but has the freedom to combine while contained within a training environment on base.

There is no second intake of Junior Officers this year, owing to COVID disrupting the officer selection process.