Download - Royal Australian Navy

NAVY ENGINEERING BULLETIN MARCH 2003
73
HMAS CERBERUS
DIVISIONS AND RMIT
PASSING OUT PARADE
6 DECEMBER 2002
VADM C.A. RITCHIE
CHIEF OF NAVY
CAPT Thomas, Graduating class,
Distinguished Guests, CERBERUS
staff, Trainees, Ladies and
Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be here today
to review CERBERUS Ceremonial
Divisions and the Passing Out
Parade for these Officers who
have completed their training at
the Royal Melbourne Institute Of
Technology. The general turnout
today was very smart, well done!
I am particularly pleased to see
so many family members and
friends of the graduates with us.
You should all be very proud of
the achievements of those here
today. I thank you for your
contribution over the past four, or
in some cases five years - I know
that your support, most often
unheard and unseen, helps to
keep our people going when
things get tough.
The course that the graduating
class has just completed is very
challenging. For over twenty
years, the RMIT Officer Entry
Scheme has been very
successful, producing Naval
Engineers of the highest quality in
all the necessary engineering
disciplines that the Navy needs to
complete its mission. This
scheme provides an opportunity
for sailors from any specialisation
to nominate, with successful
selection for the scheme
becoming more competitive each
year.
It is an intense and rewarding
course, culminating in the
awarding of a Bachelor of
Engineering. I understand that
the results for this graduating
class have been excellent. Well
done to you all.
To the RMIT platoons on parade, I
commend you on all of your
achievements to date and I take
this opportunity to wish you
similar success as your studies
continue.
To the graduating class, you have
successfully completed a major
component of your education,
further challenges lay ahead.
Extensive application courses
here at CERBERUS and also at
HMAS ALBATROSS will provide
you with both the Naval
Engineering and Leadership skills
needed in your future roles as the
Officers and Engineers within the
Royal Australian Navy.
It is essential to understand the
importance that you as Engineers
play in supporting Navy
objectives. As Engineers you have
an important role to play at sea
and ashore. During operations
such as Slipper and Relex, it is
the equipments and the men and
women that you are responsible
for that allow the Command to
achieved its operational
objectives.
Also your expertise in logistic
support, and repair and
maintenance is vital. Safety is
another area where the skills you
have as an Engineer are needed,
with tragic accidents such as
WESTRALIA emphasising to us
the dangers of our profession.
And finally, the future of the Navy
is in your engineering hands.
Projects for new Ships, aircraft
and systems are where your
engineering expertise combines
with operational requirements to
ensure that a workable affordable
solution is achieved.
Successful achievement of all of
these elements: operations,
logistics, safety and development
is essential if Navy is to continue
to fulfil its mission, now and into
the future.
Be assured that I understand the
critical importance to our Navy of
a competent and professional
uniformed engineering corps. To
look more widely at Navy, in a
broader sense, the importance of
what we do has been highlighted
firstly in the aftermath of the
September 11 terrorism attacks
last year, and more recently, the
Bali bombing much closer to
home. The security environment in
which we live and serve has
changed. The operational
commitments of the RAN will
continue to be high, with Ships
deployed in the War Against Terror
in the Gulf, and others continuing
patrol operations for border and
fisheries protection. Today, our
Ships and Aircraft are working
much harder than they were
18 months ago, and it is the
Engineers and their technical
sailors that are putting in
enormous efforts to sustain those
operations and keep our Ships
running safely.
We should be under no illusions -
service at sea, particularly at the
current levels of operational