AWAY from home and family at Christmas time can be a trying time for anyone.
For sailor Brian Delamont, this Christmas will be his first deployment away from his young family.
Mr Delamont was born and bred in Bowral, joining the Royal Australian Navy after leaving Bowral High School in 1980.
This year he will spend Christmas in the Northern Arabian Gulf on his third mission to Iraq but the first during the festive season.
Mr Delamont said he is the operations officer to Task Force 158.
“This duty is in command of coalition maritime forces in the Northern Arabian Gulf,” he said.
“It rotates between the US, UK and Australia and the current group of Royal Australian Navy personnel arrived in October and will be here until February 2009,” he said.
The team is responsible for safeguarding the port of Umm Qasr and loading of oil tankers, worth about a billion dollars a week.
The Australians are also training the new Iraqi Navy and Marines to take over when the coalition leaves.
For the full story see the Southern Highland News, Monday, December 22
leah.obrien@ruralpress.co m
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