Chief of Navy (Rear Admiral David Ledson) thoughts

I went to a funeral last week for a retired Navy Lieutenant Commander. He had been a Gunnery Instructor - got commissioned from the ranks and we served together in TARANAKI - he the Gunnery Officer - me a Midshipman under training.

My experiences on that day caused me to ask, then think about, two questions; which I think are especially relevant to our Veterans.

I visited him in hospital a couple of days before he died. The last time I had seen him was about 20 years ago. Apart from a very short telephone conversation last year we had had no contact in all that time.

As was to be expected the funeral was a sad affair - but many good things were said about the dead man. this process - a critical part of the grieving process, prompts the question. 'Why do we often honour people only in their death and not in their life?' - and that is the first question.

However, the funeral did have a signficant Navy component - and it turned to be a sort of Gunners' reunion. I met my first RNZN Gunnery Instructor - from 1969 - men I had served with at sea as I moved through the rank structure. Men, with whom my life had become entwined through shared ships, shared shipmates - and shared experiences.

Men with whom I had shared physical and emotional experiences - and many of them were retired senior ratings - a few, retired officers.

As we relived our time together - and spoke about what had happened in the years since we had moved on our separate and different paths - I asked some of them 'Why do we only meet at funerals?' - and this is the second question.

In this year, designated the year of the Veteran, these are questions deserving special consideration.

They are also relevant to the Navy's Core Value 'Comradeship' and whether it really does apply to everyone who serves in the Navy - yesterday's Sailors, as well as today's and tomorrow's.

My belief is that the concept of 'comradeship' provides a bridge across the generations. It provides a means of making the stories and 'salty dits' of individual Sailors our stories. It enables us to weave them into the fabric that is the history of Our Navy. It enables us to honour our shipmates while they are still able to bask in our admiration and respect.

So, to give practical effect to the Value - and to give my answer to the questions - we should meet regulary. We should get together as men and women who have the shared experience to having served in the RNZN. And this is the important point for us to all consider - the common thread that joins us in the context I am writing about, the thing that makes us 'unique', is not service upon the sea, it is not service in a Navy, it is service in the RNZN - Te Taua Moana o Aotearoa.

And because I think this is important, I have been supporting the efforts being made to bring the RNZN Association and ex-Royal Naval Men's Association together - and I have been talking to our Second World War Sailors about meeting once a year.

My suggestion to them has been that we meet once a year at the place we have all served at. That is the place that is Home of the Navy - Te Kainga o Te Taua Moana - at the Naval Base.

There is an old saying 'United we stand - divided we fall' that can be changed to be made relevant to this letter: 'United we tell the story of the Navy - divided we tell only our own story'.

(taken from "Navy Today" dated February 2006)