Australian War Memorial Request - DDG Associations
Good morning Gents,
I contacted you some months back regarding the Australian War Memorial redevelopment of the HMAS Brisbane Bridge exhibition. If you recall my name is Andy Schroder, I served as an OOW in Perth (SBLT 1991 undertraining) and Brisbane (LEUT 1997-98). Today I am ‘out’ but am undertaking a Navy Reserve Role with the Sea Power Centre-Australia as the Australian War Memorial Navy Fellow. I am seconded to the AWM for the $498M Development Project....part of which is upgrading the existing HMAS Brisbane Bridge exhibit with the intention of including more information about all three DDGs, the personnel who sailed in them and the operations they undertook.
The purpose of this message is to provide some background information and also to ask you to reach out to your members/association seeking volunteers to be part of the new exhibition.
Right now, the HMAS Brisbane exhibit mostly tells the story of Brisbane on the Gunline in Vietnam as well as on planeguard duty during the First Gulf War. That story is important and will continue to be included but I have been at pains to have the Gallery Development Teams understand that the three ships did much more than deploying to these two conflicts. I have managed to convince the Gallery Development folks that a valuable second part to the display should be the stories of all those personnel who make the ship function on a daily basis (the stokers, stewards, cooks, medics, storbies, greenies, dibbies, chippies, OOW, boxpackers, RPs, ROs, UWs, Coxns, bunting tossers etc). The idea is to paint the picture that the ship is a community and that it is not just the bridge and ops room teams that contribute to fighting the ship.....it takes all 330-odd personnel to achieve the end game.
To achieve this the AWM is planning on presenting a ‘cut-away’ line-drawing (much like those from the Damage Control Board) of the ship on a large interactive screen (approx. 5m x 3m) so that it is possible to see all (most) of the compartments within the ship. People visiting the exhibit would be invited to ‘touch’ a compartment on the screen and an image of a person who worked/lived there would pop up and then start into a brief interview with that person. The interview would describe what the sailor/officer did in the ship on a daily basis...they may also want to include an interesting anecdote (perhaps a recollection of something that happened that was amusing, a port visit, ops with other ships, a highlight of their career in DDGs etc etc etc).Clearly, such anecdotes would need to be suitable for a conservative audience!
Obviously, AWM will need to source a bunch of DDG personnel who are willing to be interviewed and who would be comfortable in front of a camera briefly explaining their role on board etc. It would also be excellent if the volunteers had a picture of themselves, preferably in uniform, onboard whichever DDG they served…..that may be the picture that ‘Pops-up’ on the interactive screen within the exhibit (and they would be immortalised within the AWM)!
Once AWM has a list of volunteers, across as many different ranks and categories as possible, we will look at making an initial contact with them to discuss with each person what we have in mind to enable them to shape the types of information they would like to share. We would then make arrangements to conduct a recorded interview; this may be a team visiting the individual and recording an interview or it may be a 'zoom' online type interview (much like what we often see on TV during the nightly news). The exact method of conducting the interview has not been determined just yet but will most likely be advised when AWM makes contact with the volunteers.
May I ask you to reach out to your members/association seeking volunteers to be part of the new exhibition. We are looking for all ranks and all rates from the life of all three DDGs commission. For those who would like to be interviewed they can express their interest by emailing or phoning me on the following:
Email:
Andrew.schroder@awm.gov.auMob:
0400 801 824
Should you need additional information before approaching your members please feel free to contact me using the same details.
We are hoping to have a sizeable list of volunteers by the end of November 2021.
I look forward to working with you to ensure all three DDGs are well represented in this section of the AWM's redevelopment of the HMAS Brisbane Bridge Exhibition which will tell the human story of these ships.
Aye
Andy
Andy SchroderCommander RANAustralian War Memorial Navy Fellow | Military History Section
Andrew.schroder@awm.gov.au| t 02 6206 9828 | m 0400 801 824
Australian War Memorial | GPO Box 345 Canberra ACT 2601 |
http://www.awm.gov.auPlease Note: I am in the office Monday thru Thursday
_________________
Rick Pengilly
WEBMASTER
Ex-CPOMTH3
R42630
13th MOBI Intake
July'62 to July'74
HMAS Nirimba - HMAS Melbourne - HMAS Cerberus - HMAS Tarangau - HMAS Lonsdale - HMAS Tarangau - HMAS Nirimba - HMAS Brisbane
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You may be familiar with George's work Brian, 
he's a prolific photographer of 
all things NAVY/ Dockyards, etc., 
he certainly makes my job easier...! 
Sorry I didn't get around to my debrief today, 
tomorrow for sure... 
In the meantime, enjoy this 
CREW IN BRISBANE/ QUEENSLAND/ GOLD COAST, ETC...