Four New Zealand Army personnel have been presented with Queen’s Birthday Honours.
In addition a number of New Zealand Air Force and Royal New Zealand Navy personnel were also awarded for their services.
To be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM):
Colonel Timothy James KEATING
Colonels’ List, New Zealand Army
Colonel Keating held the appointment of Assistant Chief of the General Staff, Office of Strategy Management from February 2006 to December 2007 and in this role, served as the Chief of Army’s principal strategy coordinator, responsible for central strategic planning and decision making and for the Army’s performance monitoring and reporting organisation. He was also directed to further develop the Army Transformation Process. The development of this process was a particularly challenging assignment, which required a good understanding of the contextual aspects of contemporary and future operational environments and an alignment of outputs to the future environment in which the New Zealand Army will operate. The Army Transformation Process will involve new capabilities being brought into service, changes to training and the conduct of exercises and ultimately the approaches to conflict. This transformation will however provide the government with much improved land force options and an enhanced responsiveness to be able to act in the national interest. Much of this achievement can be directly attributed to his work and the leadership he demonstrated across the New Zealand Army, the wider New Zealand Defence Force and the Ministry of Defence.
To be an Additional Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM):
Colonel Paul Willem VAN DEN BROEK
Colonels’ List, New Zealand Army
Colonel Van den Broek then in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel was seconded during 2005 and 2006 to the multi-national Combined Planning Group in the United States Central Command, as a strategic planner. The quality of the work he produced, clearly demonstrated that he was the best strategic thinker within the twenty-four nation combined planning group. Several of the high quality reviews he produced were forwarded directly to the Pentagon and the US Secretary of Defence. From April to October 2007 he served in Timor Leste as the Deputy Commander of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) and the Senior National Officer for the deployed New Zealand contingent. In his Deputy Commander role, he was pivotal in ensuring effective interaction at the operational level between the ISF, United Nations Police and Timor Leste’s own security forces. His proactive approach and well developed interpersonal skills were instrumental in coordinating efforts between these agencies. This action included constantly reinforcing in all forums the ISF role and mandate to ensure a clear delineation of responsibility in regards to the appropriate forces to be used to secure the environment. His tireless efforts to build trust between the local Timorese community and the security forces, and his work on a variety of United Nations’ humanitarian and security working groups, has served to greatly enhance the reputations of the ISF and the Australian and New Zealand Defence Forces in the eyes of both the Timorese and international communities.
To receive the Distinguished Service Decoration (DSD):
Lieutenant Colonel Helen Joy COOPER
Royal New Zealand Army Logistic Regiment (The Duke of York’s Own)
Lieutenant Colonel Cooper was posted to the newly established office of Army Transformation in January 2006 and given responsibility to develop significant parts of the Army Transformation Programme (ATP) including the development and oversight of seven transformation projects and co-ownership of the Army Transformation Structures Project. For much of the subsequent period, she was the sole full-time Army officer managing the ATP. She maintained responsibility for outcomes well above her rank or experience level, including coordinating and guiding the efforts of officers, often much senior to her, who were seconded in at various times as part of the ATP team. Despite the complicated nature of the work, the considerable workload and the handicap of not having consistent staff support, she continued to perform to a high standard, always focused on the outcome of producing an optional Army structure. Her role also changed from one of support and analysis to a principal member of the ATP, advising Army senior leadership on the future structure of Army. Her efforts also included the development of a key assessment model (the Cooper model) which underpinned the eventual Force structure considerations.
Captain Michael Peter DE BOER
Royal New Zealand Engineers
Captain De Boer served as the Plans Officer, on secondment to the Australian Army’s Timor Leste Battle Group Two from June to October 2007. He was responsible for the planning of numerous operations in an environment characterised by constant change, limited information and a volatile strategic and political atmosphere. His professional competence saw him placed in command of a Company sized organisation of Australian Forces, comprising infantry, engineers and numerous specialists, for a six week period, and charged with containing growing violence and disorder in the notorious Viqueque district of Timor Leste. This operation was of such importance to the strategic climate that it was afforded the status of the Battle Group’s main effort. In addition to succeeding in all of his tactical objectives of containing the regional violence, he creatively employed all of his command’s capabilities to effect a change in the local population’s attitude, which then allowed operations conducted by the International Stabilisation Force to commence.
Major Christopher Gerard MORTIBOY
Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals
Major Mortiboy was appointed in April 2006 to the post of Engineering Project Officer for the Army Command and Control Battle Laboratory, part of the Army’s Experimentation and Innovation Programme. The aim of the project, in collaboration with industry, was to identify the most appropriate application of Information Age Capability to facilitate the networking of combat information across the battlefield of the future. He approached this project with passion and determination, quickly assessing the many challenges and then establishing excellent productive and mutually beneficial collaborative relationships with industry partners. In doing so, he succeeded in translating an ambitious vision into a practical, functional plan that will ensure that Army accurately articulates its capability requirements to industry, incrementally solves issues that arise, and learns vital lessons as it seeks to meet future capability challenges in a complex fighting and engineering environment. He has done much to ensure that Army made this quantum leap forward, by becoming familiar with the challenges and requirements of the digitised battlefield environment.