A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

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Again, like yesterday, this was a very different way to spend Christmas. We began with
opening our Christmas presents on the roof, and yes, we had our very own Santa weapon
(Petty Officer Kara Williams) complete with weapon to hand out our presents. Some of us
got some interesting and hilarious gifts from each other. It was nice to be able to take some
time out and give and receive some Chrissie presents.
After the present opening we headed off to church where, with our fine voices, Santa hats
and headbands with Tinsel on top, we were church choir! It was a nice service and a time
to reflect on the day and remember our families back home. It was quite different sitting in
church and having Blackhawk’s fly past the window; not something you see everyday. After
quick calls back to Oz, we loaded the jazz group gear onto a truck and headed down to the
main palace where lunch with just the Aussie’s was to be served. The function room was
absolutely amazing and it was a feast fit for King’s and Queen’s with everything you could
imagine from the Christmas ham to prawns and for desert Christmas cake and ice-cream.
Santa made another visit, this time looking a little different (he was wearing a pistol) and
of course his sack was full of presents. The jazz group did a wonderful job presenting some
jazzy carols. Something we didn’t expect and that I didn’t even realize was that Chief of
Defence Force (CDF), General Cosgrove, was serving the corn. I went straight passed him,
said ‘yeah, I’ll have a bit of that corn, ta’!!! After lunch General Cosgrove made some
presentations to the band and awarded medals to some other personnel. He was very much
appreciative of the work that we had been doing to support our troops. Our troops spend
around six months away whilst our coalition friends, the Americans, do around 12 months.
Having the RAN Band in the Middle East allowed the troops some time to relax and, for the
time being, forget what they’re actually here to do.
After lunch we had a quick tour of the palace and what a palace it is! Just in the entry
alone is a huge chandelier that’s nine metres wide. It’s been an experience showering in
marble showers and using marble toilets, however, they’re still a little behind the times
here and the pipe system is yet to learn how to cope with toilet paper! This particular
palace has about 17 smaller palaces around a huge man made lake. There used to be
masses of bush land around the palace where wild animals from India and all over the world
roamed, so that the ‘royals’ could do a spot of hunting whenever they felt like it.
Carl, Shaun and Andrew had a dip in the ‘royal’ pool, crazy stuff as it was bloody freezing!
This part of the trip has been an amazing experience one which will not be forgotten. In
the afternoon jazz group played for the Aussie’s again at the headquarters and in the
evening we gave another concert (the best of the tour). We gave another three hour show
in freezing cold conditions with about 300 people in the audience. The Force Protection
brief given immediately before the concert started certainly reminded us of where we
were! A few members of the 5 th Corps US Army band came and played a few charts with us.
This band has been posted to Camp Victory since June 03 and don’t know when they’re
going home.
As our time at Camp Victory came to an end we went to sleep with some amazing
memories. Boxing Day had us on the move early again, once again all in CBA. We headed for
the airport for our flight out. This time Kirstin and I weren’t missing any of the fun and
again we had a very interesting experience during the flight. Once on the ground in Kuwait
we handed back our weapons, CBA and webbing (much to the disappointment of the Chief
who loved every minute of our time at Camp Victory). We boarded again and continued our
journey to Camp Andy our next destination. Again, the scenery was very different and
interesting; one thing we did enjoy was the warmer weather!
Again, like many other bases we’ve visited Camp Andy was predominantly American troops.
This base can only be described as ‘tent city’. As far as the eye can see there are tents and
one word that will sum it up is ‘Mash’; we felt like we were in an episode of Mash. In the
middle of the camp was a place called the Wagon Wheel, which was the hub of
entertainment once the sun had set. This camp permits a beer issue of three cans per day,
unit permitting and we loved to sit back after our gigs relaxing and having a few beers or
vodka’s. The CO and XO of the Aussie headquarters here went out of there way to make our
stay as enjoyable as they could, which was very much appreciated. Our gigs at Camp Andy
were great; we even had some rises built in a few hours for our first concert!
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage