A MUSICAL VOYAGE - Royal Australian Navy

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It was a successful week for the Great White Fleet celebrations, with a significant
contribution to the festivities being thanks to the professionalism of the musicians from
both the Royal Australian Navy Band and United States Pacific Fleet Band. Although there
was limited rehearsal time together, the polished performances both entertained and
impressed Australian and American VIP’s, and all attending audience members. It was a
chance for the two Navies to work together and continue their enduring friendship, as well
as bringing some great entertainment to the community.
Noted American historian, Professor Jim Reckner, who was in Australia to lecture on the
Great White Fleet commented:
One of the events that most struck me was the wonderful joint RAN-USN band
concert in Sydney. The highlight of that performance, for me, was a wonderfully
stirring rendition of "God Bless America" sung by a young female RAN member.
Immediately after the performance, I commented to the Chief of the Navy and also
to the General Counsel of the US Navy who was representing the Secretary of the
Navy, that, in my view, there is no other country in the world where America could
receive such a sincere and meaningful salute. I left Sydney last Saturday singing the
praises of Australia as a tried and true friend of America, and will continue to sing
those praises.
RIMPAC 2008
Article by Petty Officer Sharon Jarvis
Three weeks in Hawaii?? Free meals and accommodation thrown in?? Sounds like a great
deal!! Oh, by the way, you’ll also spend 52 days at sea. Welcome to RIMPAC 08!
So began the journey for ten musicians: Leading Seamen Martin Hancock and Aaron Geeves,
Able Seamen Damian Dowd, Patrick Beaman, Haylen Newman, Natalie Urquhart, Catherine
Wainwright, David Rampant, John McCorkelle, and myself. The date of departure had been
set (9 June), so the two weeks prior were spent rehearsing, organising gear and
familiarising ourselves with HMAS Tobruk—our place of work for the next 71 days. We set
sail 10 June; only one day later than scheduled. The transit to Hawaii took us 17 days and
during this time our days were filled doing rehearsals, damage control exercises and café
party. For seven of our group this was their first sea experience and they quickly adapted
to life at sea, with some extra guidance from two of our more experienced members,
Leading Seaman Geeves and Able Seaman Dowd.
Our first commitment alongside in Pearl Harbour was a cocktail party and Beat to Quarters
onboard HMAS Success. Over 400 invited guests were entertained by our fabulous jazz group
and ceremonial band, culminating in Able Seaman Dowd performing a stirring rendition of I
Am Australian, the Star Spangled Banner and the Australian National Anthem. The band
received very positive feedback and the night was a huge success, resulting in the mention
of us doing a cross decks with a United States ship during the sea phase of RIMPAC. Of
course, we shrugged it off and gave it no more thought; but little did we know what lay
ahead!
Later in the week we performed at two combined commitments with the Pacific Fleet
Band, the first being a Change of Command Ceremony and that afternoon a concert at the
Aloha Tower Shopping Centre. In Australia, when there is a change of command, a
somewhat small ceremony is conducted but we have nothing compared to how the United
States Navy conducts theirs. Talk about bigger than Ben Hur! Patriotic is an understatement
when it comes to the Americans! One memorable phrase would have to be “the mightiest
ship, in the mightiest Navy, in the mightiest nation in the world”. This was, however,
topped off when the new Commanding Officer of the ship took to the podium, in front of
many invited guests, high ranking United States Naval Officers and the ship’s company, and
started to cry whilst giving his speech. He was obviously overwhelmed by the entire
occasion as were we! We all came away from the ceremony feeling as if we had been
extras in some kind of Tom Cruise movie.
Royal Australian Navy Band: A Musical Voyage