Maxine Stones - Somalia veteran

Decision to join the Navy

I grew up in the northwest coast, was born in Burnie then we moved to Ulverstone and then I got myself, I hated school, no denying that, I struggled with school. So, I did three years, two years at high school, and I was allowed to leave, unless I got a job. So, I got a job in a little milk bar and that was interesting, and then I ended up working in a carpet factory in Devonport. It's now closed, but on a weaving machine, which was quite interesting. 

At this stage, I'm 16 going on 17 and I've moved out of home with these two girls, and they were joining the army. And I thought, "I might go and check this out." So, at that stage, the train was running from the northwest coast down to Hobart. So I come down to Hobart and I passed everything except my maths and English. So, the guy said to me, "That's your downfall. Come back in a month's time, do some study." "Okay." 

So, I race back and I studied me little bum off and I went back down and I thought, "I'll try for the Navy. If I don't get the Navy. I'm gonna get the Air Force." I wanted to be an air hostess, but you had to have another language. So, I had to wipe that out and I hated French at school. I wasn't a happy girl at school. But anyway, so yes, I passed. So, then I had to go and get my mum and dad to sign the approval because I was under 18 but I couldn't go 'til I was 18. 

So, I ended up, I then got a little job at the Gateway Motel as a waitress in Devonport and then got the call up in the January of '76 and they gave me a big party and I didn't realize that I was the only girl that left from Tassie in that intake. So, best thing I ever did … My dad was pretty sure, he was over the moon, he was chuffed, but my mum was very hesitant because I'd never been on a plane before either and it was pretty darn scary, and it was the old TAA with the propellers. 

So, it was very scary and then when I got to Melbourne, there was a lady there waiting for me. So, I didn't know what to expect but I knew I had to get out of town. I wanted to advance myself and I'm so grateful to that guy to say, "Go back, study up" … My mum and dad didn't really understand what the Defence Force was about, she just said, "Yes, that's good." and signed the papers, you know. My dad came with me. 

He came to Sydney with me once and he was all over the ship and in the engine room, and he just totally loved it and then I took him down to Oxford Street and he couldn't get his head around that. He said, "There's too many men and men kissing and stuff down. I don't like this.", you know, but it was pretty damn fun and even, you know, a couple of years later after dad had gone home everybody that's met him said, you know, "How's your dad going?", you know. "He should have joined the Navy too.", sort of thing because he was right into steam engines and all that sort of jazz.

Transition from civilian life to navy

For me, it was semi easy because I had six sisters and one brother. My dad was quite firm with all of us, which is fine. I haven't, didn't suffer from it, but I had a, you know, pretty hard upbringing. Grow up, build a bridge and get over it and get outside and do something. Don't ever say you're bored type thing and I was a marching girl here in Tasmania for a long time. 

I had to organize lifts to my marching practice and things like that because Mum and Dad said, "You could have a hobby, but you have to earn the money and do the whole kit and caboodle." So that was learning how to march, learning how to form, do forms, put on big displays and things like that. So, we had a lot of yelling and screaming at that stage too, so that wasn't a major problem for me. I was just super nervous when I went to Lonsdale because it was a huge two-story house and I was in this room with 20 beds, and just me and this lady yelling at me at 10:30 to turn the lights off, and I thought, "It was very dark." 

So, I was nervous in it but when all the other girls rocked up, they were the same. So, it was good. The transition was pretty good, pretty easy, actually. It's about 60 in our intake. So, you all lived in the same quarters, just maybe two in a room, four in a room sort of thing, and shared the showers. It was, at that stage, the officers, cadets also were in training too. 

So, they stayed there also just for their basic training and they used to sit in bed with their rollers in their hair, and we'd be sitting there just having fun, you know, and then they'd go, "Keep the noise down because we've got to go to sleep", you know, "Yeah, rightio.", you know, and of course, the next morning when you go to breakfast, the sailors or WRANS sat separate to the officers. The officers ate in a completely different area. It started straightaway. So, this rank discrimination to me, and we had this, there was a big milk urn and it had ladle in it, so that you ladled your milk out for youy cereals, your coffee, so of course things would get stuck in there. Things are dropping and the officers used to get very upset about that.

Early starts and inspections

They required you to know a lot about the Navy and all the forces before we joined, i.e. Where are these establishments? What kind of ships are they? What kind of submarines are they? All kinds of aeroplane.  A little bit of an overview before you even went in. So, the theory side of it, you had a bit of a knowledge anyway but, yeah, the yelling and screaming just didn't … 

When your head, hit the pillow, you made sure you went to sleep because you were up early, really early, you know, at six o'clock, and that was to give you half an hour to have a shower, get dressed and be down for breakfast and so the night before, you might finish after tea, but you still had to get all your uniforms ready and they had to be in a specific way in your wardrobe. Your bed had to be made a specific way. So, when you start your day's work after you've had your breakfast, they come in and check, and if it's not good enough, it just gets chucked out and then you have to redo it again.

Training at HMAS Cerberus

We had a warrant officer, Berry, and I'll never forget him to the day I die. He was a lovely man, very well known in the Navy, as a quartermaster and that was their job on land, to do shooting training, and also drill training, yes, and he picked up on me the second day I was in the group, "You're a marching girl. We'll get that out of you real fast", type of thing, you know, and so he, yeah, he would yell, they would yell, you know, there was no, put it aside and have a little chat. 

No, just don't go there and because Cerberus has got a lot of grass and beautiful old buildings, you never ever were allowed to walk on the grass and that is to teach you that it could be, it's water, so you don't walk and when you do, you don't walk around, you march everywhere. If there's more than two people, one person takes charge and the other two march next to her, yeah, so there was a lot of yelling and screaming. 

It didn't faze me too much. I expected it sort of thing, you know, it's definitely eased down compared to what it was and I eventually went into basic training with my promotion, you know, and I was on the other foot, yeah, I was on the other foot. Yeah. But no, I didn't have to yell, a couple of times, but it's all in your structure and the way you hold yourself to get that respect from that person. Yellings not gonna do any good but it happened there and at lunchtime, after we'd finished lunch, well, mornings we'd have to match to a destination, at lunchtime we'd march back to our cabins, then we'd have to match back in and fall in to go at lunchtime to go to other destinations. So, you were always, and the QMGs were everywhere, they'd hide behind trees and if you did get caught running, marching, walking on the grass, you got extra duties.

Becoming a cook

When I joined up, there was no sea time for females. We were classified as Women's Royal Australian Navy, so we didn't go to sea. It come in, don't quote me on this, around about '86 it come in to, women could go to sea. But in your basic training you still did firearms, you still did firefighting, you still went in the gas chamber. You learn all about the ships and establishments, rank, all that type of thing. 

Yeah. But I did go on a ship when I went to my basic training as a cook. So for the first three months, you're as a group of girls that are going to be anything that they want to be, maybe, and then you veer off into your different sections, whether it be a cook or a secretary or a communicator … they  put you through the aptitude test when you go down to your recruiting centre when you want to join and he said to me, the second time, when I went back, he says, "They're requiring cooks at the moment, Maxine, that's all I can give you and you'll be able to  go on the January." So, yes, you are you specifically picked before you even touch the ground, shall we say, but you can change once you get in there, like there was an opportunity to be a Coxon, which is a naval policeman and you could change over to a PTI physical training, photography, once you've done your basic, you know, two years and then they, you could go to those other branches. 

Then I went and did my cooking course … I always said that I wanted to be a cook, so I went straight over to do my basic cook training, which was at Cerberus and that was with men. There wasn't many females, there was two females in my class and six guys and there was four different sections in the cookery school. So, you'd march up there and do your basic cooking course and then march back home at the end of the day, and we wore white wrap around dresses, there was no such thing as women wearing pants and, yeah, you wrapped it around, it was like a smock and had a big bow on the back of it and white socks and black shoes and then when it was cold, you could wear your red jacket, a black jacket with the red markings, that was your working jacket. 

So, we'd have to march up to the Cookery School and then march back after we finished our day. Yeah. So, yeah, it was cold, it was cold but we, that was your basic training, your basic courses. Then you graduated to bakery, then we graduated to butchery. They had a beautiful, fantastic butcher shop at Cerberus and they also had a bakery … the guy that was a warrant officer who was very heartfelt towards the Cookery Branch and it got recognized, I can't tell you a year, but we are qualified in civvy street. So, you know, makes it even better for the young ones to say, you know, "If I do my six years, whether it be at sea or on land, get the ticks and the flicks and you're qualified in civvy street as a chef." which was a wonderful thing that he did for us.

A day trip on HMAS Ibis

I did go to sea once and I'll never forget it because it was on the HMAS Ibis, which is an old survey ship, they go out and find bombs because they've got this machine that goes underwater, anyway, we're in the  cookery school and they asked for two volunteers because, would we'd go and cook for a barbecue for them and me and my mate who, my girlfriend, who I'm very good friends with still, she come from Adelaide, we went, "Yes, we'll do that." 

So, we had to wear our black skirts and our white tops and our white socks and our black shoes and go out to the ship for the day. A minesweeper, that was the word I was thinking of, and so we got there and I remember saying to my mate, "This isn't a steel", the deck wasn't steel, you know, and so we got a bit confused by that and our  boss, this Petty Officer, she said, "Just wait here" and we're standing on this wooden deck, next thing, the portholes, there were, in the middle of the deck, the hatches open and this old tin barbecue come up, like the ones you cut in half and wheel the legs on to, that was what the steel meant, steel deck barbecue. 

So, we learned this that day. So, we went around the bay on the ship and had a great time and the guys had shorts on and sandals, you know, there was none of  this be conscious of the sun and all that sort of jazz. So that was an experience and years later I met a friend and he said to me," I have pictures of this. I've still got photos of when we did that trip" and he went, "I was on that ship", you know. 

I said, "Yeah, they were really conscious of, you know, sun protection and all that then, weren't they?" And he said, "No, no, no, Max, none at all", you know, yeah, so that freaked out the guys, you see, when we got there because, "Oh, there's  girls cooking today" but the fact that it was a steel deck barbecue, I couldn't, we couldn't understand it but we soon switched on.

Posted to Darwin

You had a wish list when you finished your basic cookery course, where you wanted to go, and I said, Darwin, and I got it. So, then they give you a week's notice type of thing. So, you pack all your bags, but they didn't tell me, I knew it was hot but they didn't tell me. You had to move in, draft in, or post in, in uniform and that was the only uniform I had. You've got a white dress which was for summer, but they told me to wear, because it was winter in Victoria, wear this winter clothes and it was, I had a black skirt on, black stockings. It was so hot but, anyway, my first one was Darwin, just, they'd had a little cyclone buzz while I was there. 

They had Tracy a few years before. So that was a bit scary, but I loved Darwin, loved it to bits. We shared, our accommodation was shared with three other girls. No air conditioning in the cabins, cockroaches, huge cockroaches, geckos, but I had fun there and I  was the only girl in the galley and there were six guys. So that was interesting, because I was the youngest, as soon as the meal finished, they went to the bar which was right next door. So, I learnt real fast.

Sexual harassment

I don't really like Anzac Day because that brings back memories, because that's when you kind of talk about your navy history a little bit more, you know, but I had, a lot of my mates to this day are males, because they stuck up for me and my attitude was, when you finished, I learnt real fast to have that sort of attitude, otherwise, because I noticed it with other girls, they'd giggle and carry on and then go, "Oh could you please stop it." 

And I just, I'd yell out, "Leave her alone, just get on with your work.", sort of  thing, you know, I'm not gonna go into details but I did have some yucky times … silly things they did to me and in the end, theyd' just go, "Oh, she's boring.", you know, they didn't get a reaction from me. So, then I have to say to the other girls, "Just don't react ", you know, "If they're gonna pull your knickers down while you're stirring the big copper", which is great big copper thing, and I was even on steps stirring and they come along and try to pull your knickers down and I kicked this guy once. 

That's just one example. I kicked him like a mule and he went down, and I stepped down after I kicked him, and he was lying on the deck and I went straight into my boss and not much got down about it … I've still got friends, of course, that are in the defence force. It's settled down a lot compared to what it was because they have taken control of how you deal with it, and the availbility of everything for you, you know, but it's a male dominated world, and there's no denying that, and that is not going to go away, you know, if you don't put in your 110 per cent, they'll ride it, you know, and I mean, even as I went up in promotion, I had a nasty experience and I completely moved out of cookery branch, went right out of my zone, and was a housing inspector because I needed to, you know, I had to, and that was good of them in that way, they dealt with it very well, you know, and just said to me, "You're not leaving  are you?" and I said, "No, I don't want to but I need a break", you know, so that was good. 

But just talking to the young girls, the few that I know, friends of family that have joined up, they even say it's, it's a little bit obvious, you know, "These women are taking over", you know, and they're very smart and a lot of women now are wanting, pardon me, to have a career, and they're gonna fight, you know, no matter what, and have the balls to turn around and say, "No", and follow through with it.

Working as a housing inspector and the need to go to sea

I was a petty officer. So, you've got your leading hand, then you've got a petty officer. He oversees a shift or whatever and I'd been in the cookery school as a leading hand, as a storeman, then I went back as an instructor. Then I thought, "I can't." 

At this stage, too, I was out of branch. I was in the, housing, housing inspector, loved it … I didn't like officework, but I, every now and again, of course, I'd put my apron on and go out into the galley and they'd all go, "Oh yeah, here she comes" and I just get in and play, help them, you know, because I need to get out of the office but then I thought to myself, "Well, I've been instructor at the cookery school, an instructor at the cookery school." 

I wanted to, I went out of branch to housing inspector at Hurstville working with Army and Air Force and civvies. It was quite interesting because every time you go to inspect the house because they were leaving, they'd look at my rank and go, "Oh, she's a cook, she'll go straight for the oven", and I'd go straight to the oven just because they say it and, "Well, rightio then." [laughs] 

And then I saw that they were looking for females to go to sea, and I thought, at this stage I'd gone through a nasty divorce, and I thought, "Why can't I?", and the fact that, "How am I supposed to instruct or teach these young ones when I've never done it? I've got no idea apart from my whoopee doo one day", you know. I did go to sea, took three girls to sea two years before on the Tobruk, which is a huge ship and we did 14 days and we were supposed to go to Singapore but unfortunately something happened and we had to go home. 

So, we had a little bit of a taste then too, but I thought," I've gotta go. I can't stay in this outfit unless I do for my own self-satisfaction." And, also, for people to say to them, "I've been there and done it." And so, I put my hand up, and I got a week's notice, yeah, and I went on the JB, which was the old transport ship here in Tassie.

Somalia

Somalia happened. So, we had to go to, we took 600 army personnel. So, the hull of the ship was packed with tanks, all the army gear, so there was, we were feeding a 180 normal staff on the ship and then we ended up with all the army too. So, we went to Somalia, Mogadishu, dropped off all the army. They were setting up hospitals and everything there. That was horrible, yeah, that was horrible. We had garbage gobblers. 

Have you ever seen them in America? They're in the kitchen, they're a big machine and you put all your leftovers in and it just crunches and grinds and it's gross. I was really, that hit me big time because only certain people were allowed to go ashore that was on to the wharf because it was at the peak of the war. And so, because we're still feeding everybody and the guys were putting all, they don't do it now, but all the garbage down the garbage gobbler and, of course, it comes out at the bottom of the, underneath the ship and all these little kids were swimming out and eating it. It was horrible. That was just devo but we had to dispose of it and they were hungry, you know. Horrible.

Running the galley

I started off bad. The guy that I took over from, he was not impressed. The gangway, the ladder was quite long and not too wide because it's a huge ship and as I'm going up the gangway, he's coming down and he was swearing like a mother. "How dare you. What are they doing letting a female take over from mine. You won't succeed." You won't this, you won't that, I just put my blinkers on and kept walking. 

I had a cabinet of my own, which was good. I had a little office of my own because it was an old accommodation ship. So, in that regard, it was good but the mess where we drank, if we wanted to, that was 20 Guys, and just me. They were wonderful. I've got two sea daddy's, which is really lovely and it's strange because they were submariners, some of them, and I hadn't met Bob by that stage, and when we finally caught up again, nearly 10 years later, they looked, and said, "Maxine, what are you doing hanging around with him?" and I said, "I married him." 

So, it was interesting, but it was hard because I was the only female and the guys in the mess who drank, we had beers and movies and stuff. They were lovely. They looked after me. They didn't have to, but I knew they were there if I needed them and I did a few times because there was female officers and, as they do, "Just go and see you PO", you know, put it down the line sort of thing. 

So, apart from running the galley, I also had to look after all these females and, which was, there was about 20 of them and then I also said to the lead hands, I had to have words with them and just say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, we're here. Let's make it happen. It's gonna happen. It's happening and it's not going to stop, but make it easy, because there'll be reviews. 

There'll be reports that are done on this to make sure that it can happen. Women can go to sea permanently", sort of thing, you know, so I didn't like that, but I had to do it. So, my first taste wasn't pleasant but once I was on there, you work hard as a cook. There was eight, nine of us. Yeah. So, you had shift work, yeah, and we also had a baker because he'd bake of a nighttime and, of course, the sailors love that. You smell it cooking going through the tunnels. Then he had a morning and an afternoon shift, and I was overseer.

On shore at Mogadishu

We took the army over there, dropped them off, dropped all the equipment and everything off and then come back and then went back and took another group of people. The first time we went there, it was pretty feisty, because there was a lot of firing and you could see it in the background, the smoke and all, it's just, it was just sad. It was white brick buildings, but they're all destroyed. 

So, the next time we went back, because the Tobruk went over, also HMAS Tobruk, which is also a transport. I knew that had gone. So, they stayed, but they stayed in Mombasa, they didn't come back. So, we come back and took some more gear over and we were allowed to go ashore only on the wharf in Mogadishu and that was where the hospital was, and we were armed when you walk around, understandably. 

Anyway, so we went for a walk around and there was, at the head main gate, there was military police from America and they had to check everybody, and the machinery and the machetes and all the harmful equipment that these Mogadishu's were bringing onto the wharf. It was taken off, of course, before they could come onto the wharf and the hospital was so busy and they had single man tanks, which were white. 

So, I had a look in one of them. I said to this guy, "Can I have a look?" And he said, "Sure." I was with the guys. They said, "Oh we want to too." I said, "You just ask." You know what OI mean, you just ask. They'll say, "No". So that was an experience I'll never forget. We did the two blocks, and I'm not sure how long it took us, but it was quite a while. In between that, of course, you're training all the time, you know, you don't get a decent six hours sleep let alone eight hours sleep because they're practicing if there's going to be a bomb hit, if there's going to be overhead disaster. So, this could happen at three o'clock in the morning. 

This could happen at four in the afternoon, and they'd also throw smoke bombs everywhere. So, apart from your normal duty in the galley, you had extra duties, like you might have to, one of my staff might have to bring the helicopters in or another one might have to be on the firefighting party, or another one might have to be on the flooding party. So, you're practicing all the time and whenever the head honchos decided to do that, in case it did happen.

Observations about Mogadishu

I wasn't allowed ashore, my staff weren't allowed ashore, only certain people were allowed ashore. Of course, you've got the BMs, boson mates who look after all the ropes, you know, the firearms and all that. Of course, they have to be going around checking to make sure the ship's stable and when all the transports been driven off and all this sort of jazz. 

So as far as my department goes, also supply department, we supplied food for the guys on the wharf, of course, and that were working on the ship, and it was scary because, you'd go on the uppers, around the ship, of course, you could see smoke and you could hear, you could hear the guns. You could smell the, they were bombs, you know, the fumes that come off it and you could see it because all the buildings, the sand is so white, and all the buildings were white. 

So, you can see it and smell it, you know. And I did go onto the wharf once because I had to go and see someone. They were, had to go out, trooping out of the wharf to meet some army guys and also I had to do pack lunch for them and I could feel the wharf vibrating. The second time we went back, it was a lot calmer. It didn't faze me that we were going back. I felt more comfortable knowing what was required of us a little bit more, you know, and they're washing themselves in the ocean, you know, washing the clothes. 

I think to myself, it reminded me a little bit of India, you know, when you see that on movies and everybody was fully armed. As soon as you walked off the ship, you had to be armed. And we had we had armed guys up in the decks, of course, walking around, you know. And then when I did go off the second time, off the wharf to the main gate and saw all the arms that the Mogadishus, that the Somalians were carrying. I thought, "My God, where did this all come from? This is a poor country."

A belated medal

We ended up meeting the Tobruk in Singapore after the second trip, because they stayed in Mogadishu, Mombasa just in case. We went home, come back. They received a medal for being in a war zone and so they're flashing this medal around as they walk around in Singapore, because they were parked up next to us and that was horrible, because we got no recognition. 

Not that I needed to because you're there, that's your job. But if you're in a war zone for over 30 days, you're eligible for a active service medal. So that was horrible, because they'd given it to the Tobruk, all the people on the Tobruk, but we didn't get one. Not horrible for me, it was horrible watching everybody around me, you know, and I had to get my staff and just say, "Listen, we didn't come here to get a medal. We come here to do our job, and do it to the best of our ability, and protect our country, and the ship and help. 

I don't want to hear another word about any medal", you know. I was so, and even the captain had to say something, you know. So that was wrong of the Australian Defence Force but anyway, would have been, oh, nearly six years, after I got out of the Navy I was working as a reservist at Stirling in Western Australia. My hubby heard it, sent a signal that people on the HMAS Jervis Bay that served in Somalia are eligible for a service medal and he rang me. I said, "Well, that was eight years ago", you know. 

Anyway, I said, "Oh, interesting." So, three days later, I got a phone call from the Reserve cell, said, "Come in chief, you've got your medal to pick up." I said, "Oh, fine." So, I walked in, and the chief said, "The captain wants to give it to you." And I thought, "Oh, that's a bit nice", you know. So, I went upstairs, because I was the only one on the base and his secretary says, "Oh, the captain's busy." I said, "Fine." So, I just took it. Went downstairs, thanked the guys in the reserve cell,  sat in the car and burst into tears and I thought, you know, felt so deflated. It was wrong. 

It was really wrong, but I wear it now and then, I reckon it would have been six years ago, they had afternoon tea at Government House in Canberra for all the Tobruk and Jervis Bay people to say thank you. No way. No way, did I go to that. I could see and I could feel that there was going to be tension, whether it be Government House grass or the train station in Frankston, you know what I mean? 

There would have been some nasty words said, and I thought, "I don't need this." So, yeah, they did the wrong thing there and, of course, everybody's saying, you know, the JB worked more than what the Tobruk did because they were doing Mombasa, hanging out and swimming and carrying on and we were working our butts off.

Diego Garcia

The first time we went we had 600, yeah. They were super anxious and, of course, they're sitting around because everybody else on the ships are doing their job. They were sitting around waiting, hey, to get there. We did go to, which was an absolute boost for the whole ship, we stopped in it Diego Garcia. Have you ever heard of that place? Oh, my word. It is paradise in the middle of the ocean. 

We were gobsmacked because a big ship comes in. There's this little boat tied up at the wharf and it was like McHale's Navy, one of those sort of type boats and we're all going, "Where's the rest? Where's the rest of it?" And the Air Force base is in the middle of this island. You wouldn't even know it was there. 

That was when the Americans and the Pommies were working on Diego Garcia and they had bowling alleys and big stores where you could buy anything and everything. The Americans really look after the defence. Beautiful seafood. Oh my god, that was a real good break because everybody's saying, "Where's Diego Garcia?"  and a lot of maps it's not even marked, you know, and then to realize that there's a massive spooky Air Force base there. 

So, that was a good break. So, they were getting bored and having that little break in between definitely helped but, yeah, they were getting agitated and bored, you know, and it's, of course, every now and again, because I smoke and it's whether it's a Navy's fault or not, but I haven't stopped, that's my timeout zone and so you'd go up in the uppers and have a smoke and they'd be sitting around, they're going, "I'm so bored." I said, "Well listen here, how about it, a bag of potatoes and a bag of onions. Let's see how quick you can do them for us." "Oh, you got a knife?" I said, "I've got a peeler", you know, so you'd go up there and, you know, if anybody dares say, "I'm bored" they learned real fast not to because I'd go, "Well as a matter of fact …" you know. 

So then we got to Diego and I think it was at least three or four days before we got to Mogadishu. Then they did their thing. They'd come on board each night to sleep. Nothing was ever spoken, as in, "What did you do, why there?" which I expected. I wanted to ask, no denying that but we didn't, nothing ever spoken about which I can understand why because I was a bit hesitant when I saw this power that they had just at the gangway let alone going out of the wharf where the government had charge of. 

So, and when we, when we went back the second time, different group of guys, you know, there was a few senior officers were the same and they said, "Yes, we've had to come back Maxine because we know what to expect and we've got a context there." But the rest of the army, as such, were new, you know, so, but they still had to play the game. They had to know where they're leaving ship was, what would happen if we had, they had to be involved in all the exercises.

Move to Recruit School

I could have gone to America to pick up the, couple of new ships they bought. Wasn't very successful because they were 20 years old before the Australia government took over, took them over. They were two American ships, anyway, and so we had the opportunity to go over and pick them up but I said, "No." I had a nasty incident just before I left the ship, wasn't pleasant. It was a sad way to leave, there was a discrimination, they dealt with it but not the way I would have liked it to happen, but I was allowed to, told that I could go into the cookery world. 

That was the opportunity they gave me. So, I did and went down to recruit school, but the other person involved was discharged from the Navy. I made very good friends on there but as far as, no, I didn't want to go there. I didn't have a debrief. None of us had debriefs. They do it now … My main priority was that that person got dealt with and they did as much as it could be because it wasn't much else they could do, just instant dismissal from the Navy. 

I was offered anything I wanted. I wanted to stay because my promotion was going good, and I, in myself, I had to prove that I could do something, you know, with myself and so that's when I went to recruiting, recruit school and I loved it, loved it to bits, and I met my husband, but I didn't have the inclination to go back which was sad, I suppose. If they, five years after the incident, I guess, if they had have asked me, I probably would have gone back, hey, but once I got up to my chief's promotion' it was limited, it's mostly POs on ships so it was limited anyway. So, I got to do recruiting and I just loved it at recruit school.

Leaving the Navy

I had no idea what I wanted to do when I got out, but I needed to move on, and I'd met Bob and I didn't have any children. It was definitely my right choice. I'd seen too much in the Navy, that I just went, "No, no, no, no, not while I'm here."  When we met, Bob was 40. So, I would have had a couple with him, but it was too late then. I'm okay with it. I have lots of little people around me anyway. 

So, I met Bob and, of course, we're working in the same department. I was his boss, so we both had motorbikes and he'd ride into work with me, but nobody was any the wiser that we were an item because it would have caused a lot of discrepancy. Even then, you know, 20 years down the track. 

So, we played the game. A few people knew, but it was all hush hush. So, he asked me if I wanted to go to Perth, this was an opportunity, he asked me if I wanted to go to Perth and meet his family, his kids, and ride our bikes. And I own my own house, I own my car, I owned everything and I thought, "Do I, do I or do I not?" I definitely signed up for the reserves because I knew I could do 220 days a year tax free, and I had my pension. 

So, money wasn't an issue. I thought, "I'll just take this little plunge and go with him and take the risk" and if it didn't work, I could join back up or I could just stay as a reservist type of thing, you know. So, two girls moved into my house, and I said to them, "I'll be back", jumped on my bike and left and, "No, you won't", sort of thing. 

So, yeah, I went over to Perth with Bob. So, best thing I ever did, and still did my part time and kept my fingers in the pie with the changes in the Navy, and all that sort of jazz. It was like a great reunion, but no, I fully intended to go by 20 years before I'd met Bob, but he just sort of said, "Well, come for a ride with me." So, I did.