The man for the job
Australia has a long and proud naval history, and the recent AUKUS agreement to build eight nuclear-powered submarines to counter Chinese threats to maritime security in the Pacific has put the ‘senior service’ in the headlines once again.
However, while commentators opine at length on the difficult strategic challenges ahead and the right mix of expensive equipment to meet them, we rarely hear from the brave men and women who devote their lives to protecting this “land girt by sea”.
Dave Lassam‘s recent memoir therefore offers a welcome glimpse into the reality of life at sea, and reminds readers of the valuable roles and often unexpected tasks undertaken by the Royal Australian Navy in times of peace as well as war.
Written in a breezy, engaging style which will appeal to the general reader as well as the military historian, Lassam recounts his accident-prone working-class Tasmanian childhood and decision to enlist in the Royal Australian Navy in 1978 as a medic before recalling in vivid detail his four decades of distinguished service in Australia’s ships and shore bases.
His initial posting at sea saw him serve on Australia’s last aircraft carrier, the Ex-Royal Navy Majestic Class HMAS Melbourne, a ship which never launched an aircraft in anger but had sunk two friendly warships in tragic accidents in the 1960s. While those collisions were long before Lassam’s time, he was on board when the Melbourne rescued 99 Vietnamese refugees fleeing from Communist rule from a broken-down fishing boat drifting through the night in the South China Sea.
While stationed in Darwin, Lassam helped arrange transport and treatment of Australian nationals injured in the Bali bombing in 2002, and went on to serve in East Timor in a small medical team sent to support the Australian Army as it secured Dili and the port area in 2006 after Indonesian forces sort to overturn East Timor’s vote for independence.
The ever-present dangers of naval operations are underlined by a brace of helicopter accidents recounted in the book, with the death of nine Navy personnel in a Sea King helicopter crash during Operation Sumatra Assist 11 following the Nias earthquake and the lost of a Black Hawk and two crew in 2008 while attempting to land on Lassam’s landing platform amphibious ship HMAS Kanimbla during an assault exercise.
The problems suffered by the Kanimbla and its sister ship, as well as other Australian defence purchases such as the ill-fated Taipan helicopters, underline the costs and pitfalls of design defects in modern weapon systems, but the enduring value of Australia’s navy lies in the courage, loyalty and professionalism of its sailors as much as the equipment they operate, and Dave Lassam’s book should inspire a new generation of young Australians to forge a career worth writing their own books about.
Lassam treated any number of civilian ailments and military mishaps during his long career, but the good humour and phlegmatic temperament which helped him treat others were tested by his own diagnosis of post-traumatic stress syndrome and prostate cancer while Officer in Charge of the medical school at HMAS Cerberus.
That these personal episodes are recalled with the same engaging warmth as his many anecdotes of service rivalries, commemorative events and Bass the Depot Dog is a testament to a man whose book eschews the self-serving bravado of other military memoirs but in his own quiet, avuncular way should be remembered as a true Australian hero.
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