Major General Lou Gardiner (0H06-0148-01)
27 April 2009
By Judith Martin, Defence Communications Group
In the gray gloom of an Ohakea morning there are last minute goodbyes. A father slaps his young soldier son on the back and wishes him well; someone’s mum sniffs back tears and forces a smile as she hugs her offspring. There are quiet murmurings as the Afghanistan-bound contingent moves slowly to the tarmac.
Outside, a tall figure positions himself near the door and greets every soldier as they troop past him. He tells them to take care, look after each other, and enjoy themselves. Many of the young soldiers seem uncertain who he is but smile back politely. The older soldiers know exactly who Major General Lou Gardiner is and stop for a few words before making their way to their aircraft.
Farewelling his troops on missions that will take them to Afghanistan, Timor Leste or Solomon Islands is something this Chief of Army takes personally His pride in his soldiers is obvious as he strides back inside to the waving families.
Now, after three years as Chief of Army, MAJGEN Gardiner has farewelled his last overseas-bound contingent. He has attended his last Executive Leadership Team meeting, and he is slowly getting used to the idea of relinquishing 37 years in what he says has been a “brilliant” job.
His career has taken him from the anarchy of Mogadishu in Somalia to the rebuilding of Timor Leste, and back home to command first Joint Forces New Zealand, and then to become Chief of Army. There have been stints in Australia and the United States in between, and numerous visits representing New Zealand around the world. He is at times relentlessly affable, occasionally dogmatic, coercive and passionate.
“I’ve had a ball,” he says.
Four factors convinced Lou Gardiner to join the Army when he was 18.
The second to oldest of six children in a Roman Catholic family wanted “a free degree, to play rugby, get paid and have my own bedroom.” He wouldn’t forgo the latter. “With six kids in the family I’d never had a room of my own. I got that and everything else at Duntroon (Military Academy, Australia).”
He had majored in economics, and, wanting to have transferable skills should he decide the Army wasn’t for him, opted to become a logistics officer. And at one stage in his early career he did indeed decide the Army wasn’t for him. He left and worked for a computer firm for 15 months. But there was something missing.
“I left (the Army) because I felt suffocated. I had an education but in my mind I wasn’t allowed to do what I had joined to do. I missed the comradeship and variety the Army offered though, so I rejoined. I decided if I ever got the chance I wouldn’t let other young officers get to feel the way I did when I left.”
He is grateful he was given the chance to rejoin, as those who left in the 1970s were often seen as “traitors” and not usually welcomed back. Thoughts of reaching the top echelon never really occurred to the young major; the rank of lieutenant colonel would be about as high as he would rise, he believed. Logistics officers seldom moved past the rank of colonel, the higher positions in those days going to what were seen as the “fighting” corps – infantry, artillery and armour.
But promotions came his way and, as a Lieutenant Colonel, he deployed to the civil war-wracked Somali capital of Mogadishu. Overseas missions for New Zealand military personnel were few and far between in the late 1970s and 1980s, and Somalia was his first deployment. He served as Deputy Chief of Logistics for a 20,000-strong force in what he says was a tough but professionally rewarding mission.
Later he went on to become Chief of Staff in Support Command, and studied at Harvard Business College, before becoming deputy Chief of General Staff, and then Land Commander.
In the late 1990s East Timor erupted into mayhem, and following a pro-independence referendum vengeful militia murdered and raped and burned everything they could set alight. Hundreds of thousands of East Timorese fled their tormenters. In his position as Land Commander in the rank of Brigadier, he was appointed the Joint Commander for the Mission and in that appointment it fell on him to organise most of the 1000 troops sent to the troubled island to help make, and then keep, the peace. It was New Zealand’s largest deployment since Malaya in 1957.
He later deployed there himself, as Chief Military Observer to the United Nations, leading 180 military observers from 21 nations. “Working with the leadership of a fledgling nation that has been through what East Timor went through was one of the most fulfilling roles an Army officer could have. I learned and experienced so much.”
His career took him later to Australia as New Zealand’s Defence Adviser, from where he went on to become Commander, Joint Forces New Zealand, and then Chief of Army.
The welfare of Service families has always been of particular concern to MAJGEN Gardiner. “I know that without the support of my wife Judith, and my three children, Matthew, Erin and Benjamin, I could never have achieved what I have in the Army. This reflects the support that all Army personnel receive from their partners, children and extended families. Without this selfless support we could not do what is asked of us, particularly overseas operations.”
One of the biggest challenges he has faced in his term at the top has been personnel retention. Attrition was high in what was then a burgeoning economy, and when soldiers and officers reach the five to eight year career mark “they’ll always look over the fence,” he says.
A survey commissioned by Chief of Defence Force LTGEN Jerry Mateparae showed a perceived lack of leadership was one of the main reasons behind the retention problem.
MAJGEN Gardiner says: “The leadership education process we had was very ad-hoc. We now have a formal leadership framework in place where education in leadership skills extends from lance corporals to generals. It gives everyone in the Army the tools needed at their level of leadership”
One of his passions has been encouraging a move away from a directive, controlling Army to one in which individuals are empowered. “Empowerment comes from our values and ethos, backed up by education and training. Soldiers and officers who have values and ethos and are educated and trained have self-discipline and know what is required of them. On the modern battlefield soldiers are going to be isolated. They will have to make their own decisions. With the leadership framework in place I think our personnel will be very well equipped to make those decisions.”
Soldiers, he says, work out very quickly who cares and who doesn’t, and they sum up their leaders very quickly. “They are very harsh on their leaders and rightly so. They could one day put their (soldiers’) lives at risk and soldiers need to respect and have confidence in their leaders.”
MAJGEN Gardiner is considering taking up the offer of a managing a not-for-profit organisation in New Zealand. He says he is grateful for the opportunities he has been given in life, and now wants to “give something back.”
Will he miss the Army? “Of course. I’ll miss the excitement, and the ability to make a difference. But it’s the individual people I’ll miss most.”
Ends