NAVY PEOPLE: I LOVE NOT BEING STUCK AT A DESK

Adelaide Lord grew up in Northgate but wanted to see the world, and she hasn’t stopped yet.

After graduating from Urrbrae Agricultural High School in 2007, she joined the Navy in 2008 as part of the ADF “try before you buy” Gap Year program.

Seaman Adelaide Lord

Adelaide began with 11 weeks at recruit school at HMAS Cerberus  in Victoria; the course included not only drill and ceremonial, but survival at sea and damage control.

Then Adelaide got some sea-time of her own aboard the patrol boat HMAS Broome. By the end of the Gap Year she had enjoyed herself so much she decided to sign on full-time as a communications and information systems specialist.

The job is certainly meeting Adelaide’s passion for travel. So far she has served aboard HMA Ships Broome, Arunta, Manoora and Success, and has travelled to many ports around Australia including Sydney, Newcastle, Perth and Darwin.

“I’ve had the chance to visit many South East Asia ports, including Kota Kinabalu, Port Klang and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, Makassar in Indonesia, and Singapore,” said Adelaide.

“While I love experiencing new cultures overseas, it really makes you appreciate what we have back home in Oz.”

But it isn’t all play. As a communications specialist, Adelaide controls the ship’s contact with the command element ashore, as well as other ships in company. As part of her involvement in two South East Asian Deployments and several international exercises, Adelaide has been communicating not only with Australian ships, but many foreign ships from countries including Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Adelaide enjoys that she is not continuously stuck at a desk. Part of her core duties include communicating with other ships via flags and light signals. Her job is hard work, but the experiences she has had along the way make her job exciting.

“In the near term, I’m aiming to complete the intermediate Communications and Information Systems course and be promoted to Leading Seaman,” said Adelaide.

“Ultimately though, I’d like to be posted to be part of the commissioning crew of one of the big new helicopter landing ships, either the Canberra, or Adelaide, which would be pretty cool.”