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Commander Helen Ward will be keynote speaker at Women in Service evening
Moama RSL will next month stage what could be regional Australia’s first major event dedicated to women in service – during war and times of peace. Service which extends beyond those in the ranks of the military to acknowledge and thank the many women who served as contractors and volunteers – and who have largely been ignored by history. Women In Service will be held at Moama RSL on Tuesday, April 9, starting with a commemorative wreath laying ceremony in the Moama RSL Memorial Gardens at 11am. It will be followed by lunch and a memorabilia display with two of Australia’s most accomplished military women as its keynote speakers and Abbey Holmes as the MC.
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Sitting in the loungeroom of the Echuca East house in which she grew up, across the road from the primary school she attended, Helen Ward seems relaxed, comfortable, home.
But it’s a home a long way from the global hotspots where, as Commander Helen Ward in the Royal Australian Navy, she has been deployed during her career with the military.
Hotspots where there is, literally, nowhere to hide.
Such as her deployment to Baghdad in 2007 where she would be based inside the ‘protected’ green zone inside the Iraqi capital in a support role for her unit upcountry in a ‘frontline’ posting at Tallil air base, about 340km southeast of the capital.
“In my time there across 2007-08 only one rocket was fired at our people in Tallil, but in the ‘safe’ green zone in the same period more than 1000 rockets and mortar shells landed on us,” Helen said.
In the Navy if you are posted to a ship you are frontline – from cook to captain everyone on board has a role in any time of conflict.
And everyone on the ship is, almost first and foremost, a firefighter and trained to work in damage control in the worst-case scenario because at sea in a ship under attack you are on your own and had better know what you are doing.
“There is often this misunderstanding of how the military works in relation to things such as overseas service, or going into war zones – people think as a sailor, soldier or in the air force you simply get sent, and that’s wrong,” Helen said.
“You are asked to volunteer for service and despite what people think, there are always more hands up than there are placements available.
“This is what we train for, over and over, this is what we do – we’re so good at practice we are involved in as many as 20 major exercises a year, every year, apart from other specialist training.
“And this year we will join a host of countries for the biennial RIMPAC exercises, which will run in June and July and is the largest maritime military exercise in the world, joining countries from the US, India, Chile, Japan, all around the Pacific rim – yes, it’s more practice but it is vital to ensure our services are in the best state of constant readiness and when we do get involved in the region, such as the Tonga volcano in 2022, we know exactly what we are doing and we have relationships with all those countries.”
Helen joined the Royal Australian Navy in 1987 after completing a Bachelor of Science at Deakin University, going on to complete the Direct Entry Officer’s Course at the RAN College, HMAS Creswell at Jervis Bay in ACT, followed by Instructor Officer training in HMAS Cerberus in Victoria.
Her first posting was instructional duties at the Weapons Electrical Engineering School in HMAS Cerberus, including instructional duties at sea in the flagship, HMAS Stalwart.
She was then transferred to the Australian Naval Reserve in 1989 and posted to HMAS Lonsdale in Melbourne to undertake a training coordination role. Postings in training roles included HMA Ships Watson, Kuttabul and Cerberus, plus the Royal Edward Victualling Yards. Additional training led to Defence Force recruiting postings.
In 1999 she transferred to the Public Relations Branch and was editor of the Navy Reserve News publication.
Public relations postings included Exercises Crocodile, Singaroo, Talisman Sabre and RIMPAC (Hawaii) in HMA Ships Coonawarra, Manoora, Adelaide and Toowoomba plus the USS Blue Ridge.
Active service deployments include Operation Catalyst (Baghdad 2007-08), Bushfire Assist Vic (2009), Indo Pacific Endeavour (2017), Op Bushfire Assist 2019-20 and the COVID Taskforce in 2020.
Apart from the Navy, Helen has worked in both technical and management streams at Telecom/Telstra for more than 10 years (1989-1999), followed by a couple of years in a communication role at the City of Melbourne.
Then it was back to Defence as a civilian in the Defence Science and Technology Organisation for seven years (2001-2008) before another break in the State Department of Treasury and Finance (2008-2011). She returned to Defence in the Defence Materiel Organisation which later became the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (2011-2020) – and along the way completed a Graduate Diploma in Management and a Master of Arts in Public Relations.
Helen is currently posted to HMAS Cerberus as the manager of the Heritage and Learning Centre where she has developed a keen interest in RAN heritage and history.
Part of which she said is the acute awareness that she, and other women in the service, walk on the shoulders of the generations which went before them.
She said only a few years before she joined the RAN, women in the service who married were required to leave “as their duty was to now serve their husbands instead of the Navy”.
Her still incredulous laugh says it all.
“That was still in force in 1984, in 1984. For goodness sake. Yes, change has come but it has been more generational than any one big step overnight,” Helen said.
“It’s also a cultural thing, and a large part of it is about education and showing you can do all the jobs in the Navy as well as, well, as well as the next man.
“Once upon a time even that was not enough, you had to ‘prove’ you could do it as well as everyone else but today we even wear the same uniforms and around one in every five naval personnel are women and serving on ships with the men.”
Helen said even with all the progress since 1984 the Australian Defence Forces are still evolving but, as far as she is concerned, it is the link with the history of the service, with the ships and the bases and the campaigns and battles, which fill out the true story.
She said it is the one thing her current role has taught her.
“As part of the training we provide new recruits, we immerse them in the history of the Navy and we feel they need to be aware of the history of the ships in which they serve. Each one of our ships has a complex story behind it,” Helen said.
“Just look at the Sydney, one of the most famous names in the fleet. The first one was commissioned in 1912, the current one in 2020 and it has been everything from a frigate to an aircraft carrier.
“When you go on board as a member of the crew you become part of that history, of that story.”
Helen’s commitment to the military goes well beyond her past and present roles, she has also been president of the Hampton RSL Sub-Branch, and served on its committee for 10 years.
She also lights up when discussing the current expansion of the Navy as its steers into a nuclear future with attack class submarines along with a major surface fleet review recently announced.
“The strategic situation in our geopolitical region puts services such as the Navy back on the public agenda,” she said.
“Right now the Navy is a seriously growth business and being part of its growing role at home and regionally is an amazing opportunity for people whatever their skill level of interest.”
Tickets to the Women In Service tribute are $20 (for a two-course lunch) and bookings for the event at 12pm on April 9 are essential. They can be made online at moamarsl.com.au or call Moama RSL on 5482 6677 or email paula@moamarsl.com.au
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