Navy Reserves protect United States Naval Ship

Personnel from Christchurch Reserve Unit HMNZS Pegasus brought up their J3 RHIB on a trailer to Wellington, while Regular Force personnel from the Boat Squadron at HMNZS Philomel trailered their RHIB down from Auckland.

As part of a Force Protection team of Navy and NZ Police, the work involved escorting the 7^th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge into Wellington Harbour on 16 May and patrolling the ‘Defence Zone’ around the ship during the days and nights it was berthed at Centreport wharves.

The work required the rotation of the two boats on 24/7 shifts using Philomel personnel and reservists from Pegasus, Dunedin Reserve Unit HMNZS Toroa and Wellington Reserve Unit HMNZS Olphert. The New Zealand Police launch Lady Elizabeth IV and a Police RHIB shared patrolling duties.

The Blue Ridge departed Wellington on 21 May.

Warrant Officer Combat System Specialist Richard Murray, Regular Forces and Acting Divisional Coxswain Pegasus, was the Officer in Charge for the tasking. He came with one reservist from Toroa, three Pegasus reservists and ‘Razor’, the unit’s RHIB.

The tasking was short notice but the reservists were keen to support, he said.

The crews and boats rotated four-hour shifts, basing the RHIBs out of Seaview Marina across the harbour.

Petty Officer Maritime Trade Operations James Dunlop-Storey, HMNZS Olphert, says it’s great to see Reserves working closely with other agencies. “It was good to work so closely with Police and I look forward to working with other Government agencies in the future.”

He said they experienced the full range of Wellington weather during the protection period, including torrential rain over the weekend.

“It’s always good to spend time on the tools, and having little blue penguins and seals coming to check what we were doing is always heart-warming.”

For Christchurch, it’s another solid tasking for ‘Razor’, which is with the unit for a ‘proof of concept’ trial to test the return of small boat capability to the Naval Reserve Force.

Early this year Pegasus assisted the Environment Canterbury Harbourmaster on a Safe Boating project, taking their RHIB to harbours and lakes in Canterbury and talking to boaties.

Lieutenant Commander Tim Johns, Commanding Officer HMNZS Pegasus, says it was a very good demonstration of how Reserves and Regular Forces could merge seamlessly.

“It was 50 percent Reserves, 50 percent Regular Forces, doing the same tasking together. And from the perspective of our trial, it shows our deployability of our RHIB from land. This kind of tasking grows our Navy’s collective knowledge and skill.”

The other benefit was showing the talents of the Reserve Force to Regular Force personnel.

“The Regular Force have very limited opportunity to interact with Reserves. It can be difficult to comprehend the way we operate given that reservists have other careers to manage while still providing support for the Navy.

“So this was a really good engagement piece where members of the two force elements got to learn from each other. The Reserves are staffed with a lot of ex-Regular Force personnel, and there’s a lot of recent experience we can bring to the table. This is a very good starting point to show how we can operate together on a more regular basis.”