Lieutenant Commander Desmond Woods OAM RAN
Retirement Speech at the
Commonwealth Club – 7 June 2023
By Ed. In a career in which he served in three Commonwealth navies and the British Army, Desmond committed fullly to a life of service. As a stalwart member of the NOC he has contributed greatly to our Club and has been an excellent conduit into the miasma of Canberra. In his last posting as the Navy Bereavement Liaison Officer he has brought a new persepctive to how former serving personnel and their families should be treated.
I am the most fortunate officer I know. I have had a career which I could not have imagined when I joined my first Navy, the RNZN in May 1974. This paying off party is my way of thanking my family, my colleagues and my friends for my great good fortune and having had the privilege to serve.
First and foremost I want to thank my dear Elizabeth. Asking her to marry me in 1972 was the best decision I ever made – followed by my decision two years later to ask to join the Navy. She has been with me on every posting in every country and every house and married quarter. She cared for our three sons when I was at sea and when I was on Army exercises and when I went to war. She taught British Army kids in service children’s schools West Germany and worked as a teacher in Vincentia and in Nowra and as a Defence Transition Mentor and a Conflict Resolution Service Mediator in Canberra. We went together to the Australian International School in Singapore and taught there in the steamy heat for two years. Elizabeth has provided loving support and wise guidance to our sons all their lives and love and support, and much needed adult supervision to me for 51 years.
I made the decision early in life to join the Navy. I was aged six in 1957 when my Medical Officer father took me on a ‘sons at sea’ day on his WWII era RNZN Loch Class frigate Kaniere. I loved feeling like a member of a ship’s company for the day. That has never changed.
In 1974, with a shiny new history degree and a Teaching Diploma, but no enthusiasm for life in a high school classroom, I presented myself to an ex Royal Navy World War II generation Commodore Humby DSC RNZN, for his decision on my application for entry as a graduate Seaman Officer. He was clearly not impressed when he saw I wore glasses. Glaring at me over his half glasses he asked me:
‘Well Woods’ he said ‘what would happen if you were on the bridge in action and an incoming shell blew your glasses off your face eh, eh?’ Without due thought or reflection on the likely effect of my words I replied, “well Sir, I doubt if I would be looking for them!”
At this point the interview was about to be terminated prematurely when the Instructor Commander on the Interview Board said:
“I remember your father did an appendectomy on one of our sailors on Kaniere’s wardroom table at sea in a typhoon. The sailor recovered well. Pause. I see you have a degree in history. Would you like to be an Instructor Officer and teach senior sailors and Midshipmen service writing ? ”
I was in! That was the second easiest job interview I ever passed. The easiest one I will come to later.
Two months of watch keeping as a very green Sub Lieutenant in the Southern Ocean on a WWII vintage, former RAN Bathurst Class minesweeper, HMNZS Kiama, cured me of any delusion that a seaman officer’s life at sea is glamorous. Minesweepers could famously roll on wet grass. A passing battleship captain once signalled a minesweeper rolling in a heavy sea: “I can see down your funnel, your fire is burning beautifully. “Let’s just say that eight weeks in a small, ever pitching ship, was a very slimming experience for me.
Next I was posted to the frigate HMNZS Taranaki, due to sail south of New Zealand into the ‘roaring forties’ on urgent Government business. The RNZN was asked to round up six ewes and two rams from Sarah’s Bosom, a remote harbour in the sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands for taking back to Wellington. These eight unshorn and wild, sheep were part of a long abandoned flock. Now they were wanted for breeding purposes in NZ and I was informed by my CO that as his youngest officer on board catching, sexing and embarking the sheep over the ship’s side in strops from RHIBS was clearly my job. There was clearly no point in disagreeing.
Even with Taranaki’s rugby team’s eight forwards and two speedy wingers, all armed with shepherd’s crooks, to help, that was a tough assignment. While chasing these wild sheep in sub-Antarctic gloom through bogs we all fell into hidden and very smelly sea elephant wallows and were then attacked by furious nesting Royal Albatross. Back on board, with the sheep bleating from their pen slung across the mortars, sleepless and covered in Sea Elephant manure I reported our success to the CO who was anxious to up anchor, and was appointed by him as Sheep’s Divisional Officer for the passage back to Wellington. Captain Blair Gerritsen, the NZ Defence Adviser, here present, Sir, I thank the RNZN for the great training and the opportunities I had to make a start on my Navy career in my early twenties. The RNZN was then, and remains now, the ‘Best Small Navy in the World!’
In 1979 I was fortunate to be allowed to a transfer my commission to the Royal Navy. I joined a large Navy with a fleet deeply engaged in fighting a very long, very cold war in the Atlantic, the Barents Sea and the Mediterranean against Soviet Admiral Gorshkov’s Fleet of ships and submarines. My part in this decades long contest was very modest indeed but it did involve serving with the Fleet Air Arm at sea in the carrier HMS Hermes and with the Royal Marines ashore in Plymouth. In 1983 I was the resettlement officer for 40 Commando and organised training for several marines who had their limbs amputated during the Falklands War and could not continue to serve.
They needed to make a new start as civilians and there were firms ready to help them. But they were a reminder to me of what can happen to troops who we send to war when the cheering stops and the victory parades are done. We are gradually getting better but too often what Kipling wrote still applies to our veterans:
God and the Soldier all men adore,
In time of trouble – not before,
When the War is over and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.
Brigadier Will Taylor, Royal Marines, formerly the UK’s Defence Advisor to Australia 2010 – 2014. I am very pleased to reflect with gratitude in your presence on the outstanding years in which I served in the Royal Navy and with, but not in, the Royal Marines the finest soldiers in the British Order of Battle.
The past is another Country we did things differently then. Post Falklands War as HMS Hermes Public Relations officer in New York I received a request from the Playboy Club to allow 20 bunnies to come aboard in costume complete with fluffy tails for a photo shoot with our sailors and aircrew heroes who, I was told these young ladies very much wanted to meet. The captain approved the visit and when they learned of it our sailors definitely wanted to meet the bunnies! Herding cats I learned is easier than herding bunnies off one of HM carriers full of messdecks and bars. All I can say is that I counted them all onboard and several hours later I counted them all off. What happened in between I will leave to your imagination.
A young Desmond Woods in Bunny Heaven
In 1984, I came ashore as it became clear that, despite two years of the best paediatric chemotherapy treatment then available, our seven-year son Christopher could not defeat his Neuroblastoma. With weeks to live he was made an acting Leading Hand of the Naval Air Station, HMS Daedalus near Portsmouth, by my Commanding Officer. When he died Daedalus hosted his funeral service in the ship’s chapel.
The White Ensign was half masted and the Still was piped as our son’s hearse took him ashore for his burial – which my Commanding Officer and his wife attended.
Such kindness and consideration mattered to us then and I am convinced that such respect and engagement matters for all our Navy families. Elizabeth was expecting our new baby Alex, who is with us today.
We were a bereaved New Zealand couple, far from home and family, and it was the time-honoured Navy ceremonial and the friendship of colleagues which gave us a level of support and solace. That experience has remained with me and has often been in my mind in my work as NBLO in recent years.
In 1987, after eight years of having failed to win the Cold War in the Navy, my short service commission as an Instructor Branch Officer was due to expire. I applied for and was accepted into the British Army. I shaved off my beard, was taught to stamp my foot when coming to attention by a fierce Colour Sergeant, scrambled over the mountains of Wales in a sleet storm, and was commissioned into the Royal Army Educational Corps as a Major. At my request we were posted to Dortmund in West Germany. Elizabeth taught British Army school kids German and English and I taught their Royal Artillery fathers Military Studies for promotion and exercised with them in bitter cold.
In August 1990 Iraq seized Kuwait precipitating the Gulf War and I deployed from Germany to the Middle East with the 7th Armoured Division – the Desert Rats. My main job for three months in Saudi Arabia was as a media minder keeping the embedded journalists and TV camera crews briefed and taking them to see our soldiers dug in waiting for the ground operation to start.
When it did start I became a driver and drove troops in a convoy of four ton trucks, day and night across endless sand. We were just behind our Challenger tanks which were firing and hitting Iraqi tanks that could not fight at night.
We in the convoy watched the muzzle flashes light up the night as our modern British tanks destroyed the obsolete armour of Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard. It was obvious as we drove through the devastation at dawn that it was no contest.
The whole war was a tragedy for an estimated 30,000 young Iraqi and Kurdish conscript soldiers who died – and for their families. We got our Iraqi prisoners to bury their dead. The British Army lost 47 soldiers in the 100 hours of the attack – tragically 34 of them were accidentally killed in a blue on blue by the US Air Force. I was one of those involved in sending their bodies home to their grieving families for burial.
Back in West Germany my career as an officer educator, like tens of thousands of others in the British Army of the Rhine, was cut short when, in 1992, Mr Gorbachev decided that the Cold War was indeed over.
He may not have realised the effect his decision would have on my career in the Royal Army Educational Corps, which was promptly disbanded and most of its officers invited to think again about a civilian career. We were told we were to have a ‘smaller but better British Army’ overlooking Napoleon’s maxim asserting that ‘other things being equal battles are won by the side with bigger battalions.’
Unsought mid-career military redundancy as a Major was not easy, particularly when, after we arrived in Canberra in 1993 ADF recruiting told me my application to join the RAN could not proceed as I had just turned 40 and was, therefore too old to be considered for even lateral transfer and, the clincher, that the RAN’s Instructor Branch had just been disbanded.
That appeared to be that! Until I learned by chance in 2001 that, now aged 49, my statutory senility had been revoked when the age limit for entry been raised to 50. With weeks to go till my birthday I had become just young enough to enter the RAN for five years only as a Training Systems Branch officer.
I joined as a Lieutenant with one year of seniority through the Naval College as a Lateral Entrant Program Officer – known to all as the Lepers!
I then stayed on the staff at Creswell for six years teaching leadership, naval history, and strategic studies as well as being ship’s Public Relations and Museum Officer. I took over all these varied duties from my friend and military history author, here present, retired Lieutenant Commander Tom Lewis. Thanks for the handover Tom.
My former Commanding Officer at Creswell, Commodore Mark Sander is here and I remember with gratitude his willingness, with Captains Tony Aldred and John Van Dyke to educate as well as to train our new entry and junior officers. Thank you Sir, for that encouragement to continuously innovate and refresh and update the Junior Officers Strategic Studies syllabus every course – much to the despair of the Training Office.
It was my privilege at the RANC from March 2003 – December 2008 to assist junior officers to understand that Divisional Leadership, knowledge of our Navy’s history, Australian Maritime Doctrine and International Politics in our Region are all important in a successful RAN officer’s career.
One of those hundreds of graduates from those years, here present, is my friend, former Sub Lieutenant, now Commander Andrea Argirides PhD. She was naturally dux of the course and has been over-achieving ever since as the Governor General’s ADC, then for 13 years at Joint Operations Command, from where she deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as an Intelligence Officer. She is now at the Defence College passing on her expertise and experience to Course Members.
I was aided on each course at Creswell by the Directors of the Sea Power Centre successively Captains Justin Jones, Richard MacMillan, Richard Menhinick and Peter Leavy and by many civilian lecturers. One regular lecturer was my friend John McFarlane from the ANU, here present. He taught officers from personal knowledge about the AFP’s national and global operations countering the dark world of trans-national crime and terrorism. My friend Professor William Maley, here present, also very kindly made the trip from the ANU to Creswell frequently to enthral and impress my students with his extraordinary knowledge of the history of warfare and international relations, Afghanistan and our region.
Also on the RANC staff was my friend, here present, Commander Richard Adams. He taught ethical leadership by drawing on examples of heroes from the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome. Achilles and Hector and the Trojan Wars, and Hannibal and the Punic Wars featured in his lectures. One Chief Petty Officer who had been listening to Richard with great attention confided to me after the lesson that he had never heard of the Pubic Wars before! Thank you Richard for your unique contribution to military education.
My next posting in 2009 was on the staff of the Australian Command and Staff College. The Director of Studies – Navy, Captain Richard McMillan kindly asked me to teach Naval History.
I met Professor Michael Evans, General Hassett Chair of Military Studies at the Australian Defence College, here present. Mike and I were requested by the ADC Commandant, Rear Admiral James Goldrick, to plan and host CDF’s Counter-Terrorism Conference. Mike was the International ‘speaker seeker’ and I was the conference planner and convenor. It was a great success – but so labour intensive that it has never been repeated. Thank you Mike for the team work and the wisdom you always impart.
My next posting was as a Military Support Officer to the Defence Community Organisation in Canberra where I led Bereavement Support Teams for the families of those who died while in ADF service. Tragically that included Hugh and Janny Poate from Canberra who lost their beloved son Private Robert Poate to enemy action in Afghanistan. Janny and Hugh were always warm and welcoming to me. Janny is here and I thank her most sincerely for that courtesy and for our continuing friendship.
My friend Rear Admiral Alan du Toit posted me to Sydney in January 2013 to join the International Fleet Review Ceremonial Team with nine months to get the city ready for this centenary commemoration of the entry of our First Fleet Unit in October 1913.
It was Great Navy Week. Naval and national history was made, as, warships from around the world in line astern entered the harbour. An eligible royal bachelor, young Prince Harry, took the salute. That night the Opera House sails carried our White Ensign beautifully emblazoned on it. Next morning we had a multi-navy ceremonial march past Sydney Town Hall, led by the Fleet Commander Rear Admiral Tim Barrett, and that night a million Sydneysiders enjoyed the spectacle of fireworks rising from the harbour bridge and from our ships decks into a clear sky. What a Night to Remember that was!
In 2014 I continued the Centenary of ANZAC theme as one of the Navy Events team, implementing events commemorating the Navy’s part in the events of 1914. I ran the commemorative events for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Cocos Island, our Navy’s First Victory. On the island to remember the loss of life on both sides were the Governor General, Peter Cosgrove and CN Admiral Barrett and the German Ambassador and the then Warrant officer of the Navy now Commander Martin Holzberger. We were with the German and Australian descendants of those who fought against each other in the cruisers Sydney and Emden. A new commemorative monument was opened in the form of a mast which has replicas of the two ships bells on the same yardarm.
In 2015 Admiral Barrett appointed me as his research and speech writer. I worked with and took over from my friend here present then Commander Alastair Cooper. I worked for CN’s Chief of Staff then Captain Tim Brown, here present, as we shaped the sentences and that CN needed every week as he spoke in Australia at commemorative events and around the world of the need for a recapitalised future RAN fleet which Australia needs.
I particularly enjoyed being the Master of Ceremonies for the launching of each of our three Hobart Class destroyers in Adelaide.
When I turned 65, on 12 June 2016, statutory senility returned, and my time in the Permanent Navy came to an end. But the previous day I was transferred to the active reserve and Admiral Barrett kindly moved me to the Seapower Centre – Australia and where I worked with the Navy’s Principal Historian John Perryman, Greg Swinden, Petar Djokovic and Rob Garrett – all here today. Together we succeeded in finding seven RAN Battle of the Coral Sea veterans and sending these Ancient Mariners to New York for the 75th anniversary of their battle where they were cheered wherever they went. They are all gone now.
John, thank you for all our work together and all the help I have received from you over the years. Petar, Robert and Alastair thank you for the work we have done together recently. Mobilising our RAN historical records and photos to bring reassurance to Australians that the Navy preserves and remembers their family’s stories of service given, and sacrifices made, will always be, important work and the Seapower Centre is world class at that.
In 2017 I had a most welcome last opportunity to be a Divisional Officer for sailors and officers again when I became OIC of the Personnel Support Unit for Albatross. The task was to assist Fleet Air Arm members who needed to either return to their Squadrons, if physically or psychologically able to do so, or, if that was not possible, transition out of the Navy to a different future. Careful research, liaison with Medical Officers, patience and counselling skills were needed in that role. My own experience of premature loss of my UK military career I hope gave me some empathy for those who knew they were to be discharged.
While at Albatross the then Commander of the Fleet Air Arm, Commodore Chris Smallhorn, asked me produce a new book which became: Flying Stations (II) – The History of the Fleet Air Arm from 1998 – 2022. It was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of its founding in 1947. Elizabeth called the book my personal ‘Albatross’ round my neck. Admiral Barrett kindly launched it last October in the FAA Museum where it is selling well to FAA tragics!
While I was at Nowra, in December 2017, I learned from DCO’s Lieutenant Commander Wendy Ross, here present, that then Commodore Boulton was looking for someone to be the Navy’s first Bereavement Liaison Officer. I called him to make enquiries and asked if he could send me the position’s selection criteria so I could address them in a letter of application. He said, ‘Do you want the job, Des. I said ‘Yes Sir’. He said ‘Its yours’. That was without doubt the easiest job interview I ever did. Thank you, Sir for so much that has followed.
Being NBLO has been the most personally rewarding posting I have ever had. For five years I have had the responsibility and the privilege to engage with our veterans and their families and friends at a time when a death is close or has just occurred. Engaging with our bereaved Navy veterans and their families, offering our Australian White Ensign as a coffin pall, having uniformed representation, the Last Post and CN bereavement pins, is a measure and a demonstration of our compassionate, people centred Navy values. How we honour our dead defines our living Navy culture.
The respect that we extend to relatives of our former workforce is repaid in lifelong gratitude and goodwill from the deceased members family and friends.
In 2020 when Captain Anne Andrews, here present, set up a new Directorate of Navy Past Workforce and Incident Management she inherited the NBLO as part of the fixtures and fittings. She very kindly fitted me into her new team with Commanders Catherine Bryant and Katrina Blazey. Thank you all three Ma’ams for your good guidance, wisdom and daily assistance with my engagement with families and with the Office of the Chief of Navy.
During the last period of my service I have been very well supported and encouraged in my work by Commodore Tish Van Stralen, Captain Mark McConnell and my Divisional Officer Commander John Gill. Thank you all. The newly renamed Directorate of Sensitive Issues Management is vital to Navy’s reputation as we live up to the expectations of our fellow Australians.
If I have not mentioned you by name it is not because I have forgotten what I owe you. I am most grateful to you all for being here to hoist this gin pennant, and see me finally step ashore.
So it is time for me to conclude my Navy career and hand the baton on. But the end of my Reserve days I sincerely hope. will not be the end of days! There are new adventures and fresh opportunities to be of use in this world and I will seek them out.
The more observant among you may have noticed that there is a very small person in the room as yet unseen. She is due to make her very welcome debut next month and no doubt become a source of sleeplessness to her parents and great joy to her grandparents. I hope to attend her 21st birthday party with Elizabeth in July 2044!
After a lifetime of words, which I have written and spoken for three Navies over nearly half a century, I choose to provide a final message written not by me, but by my much admired and missed former Commanding Officer, the late Rear Admiral James Goldrick AO CSC. Earlier this year, knowing that his life was drawing swiftly to a close, with typical courage and thoughtfulness, he wrote a short passage of final words of advice and guidance for those of us still serving and our professional descendants. James wrote:
The Navy expects a lot from us and it is important that we ensure that all concerned are looked after. It is not only your problems that you need to have an eye out for, but those of your shipmates, particularly the young, the inexperienced and the newly joined.
At its best, the Navy has always espoused consideration and respect for each other, good manners and abiding courtesy. There will obviously be times when events are moving quickly and personnel are under intense pressure with little time for the niceties of life. It is then that the development of real teamwork and mutual respect bears fruit in allowing all of us to help each other to do the jobs required of us quickly and well.
With those wise and generous words in mind, written by James Goldrick, a model of naval courtesy and professionalism, I ask you to raise your glasses and drink a toast to our Australian Navy.