Meet Dave Lassam, The Man for the Job

Dave Lassam

Description

I joined the Navy in 1978 and was discharged in late 2016 after almost 39 years service. I served as a medic and also a Medical Administration Officer during my time. The book contains my memories of an awesome career and covers many subjects from my attendance at car accidents; reviving people who had had heart attacks; working in disaster zones to give humanitarian aid and many other stories.
I wrote this at the behest of many of my civilian friends with whom I had told these stories and also for myself. I have been involved in some of the biggest news stories in Australia including my role in the evacuation of Australian nationals from Bali after the Bali Bombings, to commanding a group of medical specialists and sailors who deployed with the US Navy during humanitarian missions to the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean.
It also covers my diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Prostate cancer which basically ended my career.
Dave Lassam
Lieutenant Commander, RAN (Ret)

Sujets

• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 03 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669889076
• Langue: English

Extrait

MEET DAVE LASSAM, THE MAN FOR THE JOB
My 39 Years Service in the Royal Australian Navy
DAVE LASSAM

Copyright © 2022 by Dave Lassam.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022910980
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-8908-3

Softcover
978-1-6698-8906-9

eBook
978-1-6698-8907-6
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 07/19/2022
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
841549
Contents
Why Did I Join the Royal Australian Navy?
Recruit School and Medical School
Medical Training School
HMAS Cerberus
HMAS Cerberus — West Head Gunnery Range
The Cow
The Softball Game
Health Centre Cerberus
Death Ball
Dog Show at Cerberus
HMAS Albatross— 1979–1980
The Ghosts
HMAS Melbourne: CVS 21 – Aircraft Carrier— 1980–1982
Deploying to the Indian Ocean
Crash on Deck
Training at Sea
The Royal Jahore Polo Club
Cockies
The Bank
Melbourne Group 99 (MG99)
The Cold War I
The Cold War II
HMAS Harman— 1982–1984
ANZAC Day
Rocks in the Head
The Bet
HMAS Huon— 1984–1986
Bass— The Depot Dog
Promotion — Welcome to the Dark Side(1988)
Australia Day 1988 — The Bicentennial
The Fleet Medical Administration Office
Canberra— Directorate of Navy Health(1988)
Recruiting
Shit Magnet
Tyabb–Victoria— 1988
CPR at the Dog Show
More CPR
HMAS Penguin
Disaster Management
The Park
The First Bali Bombing (12 October 2002), Headquarters Northern Command (HQNORCOM), and Other Adventures
The Area of Operations
The First Bali Bombing
HMAS Penguin— 2005–2007
Exercise Croix Du Sud (Southern Cross)
Operation Sumatra Assist II— The Loss of a Sea King: Call Sign Shark02
Lahewa
Epilogue
Operation Quickstep and Black Hawk Down
Epilogue
Operation Astute— 2006
USNS Mercy — 2006
Epilogue
Headquarters Joint Operations Command— 2008–2010
OP Slipper
Volunteering
Submarine Association — Speech at the Shrine
The Red Cross
The Defence Medal
Royal North Shore (RNS) Hospital
Parade Commander
Cousin Clare
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) andProstate Cancer
Glenda
ADF Long Tan Youth LeadershipandTeamwork Awards
Epilogue
Dedications
Glossary of Naval Terminology Used in This Book
Why Did I Join the Royal Australian Navy?
I suppose the best place to start is at the beginning – funny about that.
On Christmas Day 1959, in the small town of Rosebery on the west coast of Tasmania, my mum gave birth to a very good-looking baby: me. Rosebery is quite small and had a bush hospital where I was born, but we were not destined to stay there for too long. My dad was studying geology at university, but he needed to go to where the work was, so my family upped sticks and moved to Newcastle, New South Wales, when I was 12 months old.
We moved into a housing commission house in Waratah West, where we lived for about nine years. Now Dad wasn’t known for his style back then, which is why he painted the house mauve with matching dark purple gutters. Yes, I was scarred for life!
In the early 1960s, I started school and quickly earned a reputation when I was 5 years old to be quite accident prone. On the second day of school, I fell down our front steps and fractured my skull; I was playing in the school yard and was climbing up a tree stump, slipped, and ripped open my left inner knee area on a rusty nail, and I fell off my cubby house roof playing Batman with my mate from next door. By 1968, we were moving again, this time to Brisbane in Queensland.
This was a big move mainly because my nearest relatives were back in Newcastle, and by this stage, I had two brothers and a sister. We moved into a Baptist church manse in the suburb of Sunnybank, a southern suburb of Brisbane. I suppose we had a pretty normal upbringing in a working-class area, but this would change after a serious car accident. As I recall, on Friday, 13 April 1969, Dad decided we should go back to Newcastle for a holiday over Easter. We had an old EB Holden sedan, with the three elder kids being in the back and my little brother in what was, I remember, one of the first child restraint seats which just hooked over the middle of the bench seat.
My dad was never what you would call a good driver, and he could be very single-minded when he was trying to keep to a schedule. ‘Impatient’ is the word. So we headed off to Newcastle via the New England Highway; remember that this was the late 1960s and the roads were pretty ordinary. I recall at one point in the trip, the three of us in the back seat were fighting about something, and we were warned that if we didn’t stop, we would be turfed out and made to walk! Yeah, right –but that’s exactly what happened. As the eldest, I was removed from the back seat on the side of a major highway and left there, being told that they would meet me in a mile up the road. Then off they went. I eventually caught up with them after walking the mile or so down the road. Needless to say I was somewhat quieter for the rest of the trip.
Unfortunately, the trip did not end as one would have hoped. Near the town of Tenterfield, there is a bridge over quite a long drop to a river below. We had been behind a bus for some time, and as I noted before, my dad was not a very patient man. As we came onto the bridge, which was only two lanes wide, he decided to overtake the bus. Unfortunately, the car coming the other way could not stop in time, and we had nowhere to go. The result of the head-on collision left my mum with lots of injuries, and Dad had head injuries. However, we all survived, but it was to be the end of my parents’ marriage within about fiveyears.
After they split, my brother Peter and I stayed with Dad, while my sister, Denise, and little brother, Ross, went with Mum. As is quite common in these situations, both my parents found new partners in due course. Without going into too much detail, I did not get along with my new stepsister, and the result was I was bundled off to boarding school. This was quite devastating for me as I was sent there in Term Three of my Year 10. There was no way this was going to end prettily.
Brisbane Boys’ College (boarding school) was particularly nasty for a new boy who had no idea of how this system worked. I was bullied, assaulted, and given an all-around hard time. However, it did build my resilience to such things, and when I finished Year 10, I was allowed to go and visit my mum, who had, by now, moved to Launceston in Tasmania. I was told by my dad that if I came back, I would be sent back to boarding school. Needless to say, I stayed in Tasmania and started at a brand-new school for the rest of my education.
I started college in 1976, and in 1977, I was completing my Year 12 matriculation at Alanvale College in Launceston, Tasmania. Midway through that year, if you had asked me what I was going to do at the end of school, I would have said I was going to be a forest ranger with the hope that I might emigrate to Canada to work in Alberta as that had been a childhood dream. However, this was not to be.
I had applied through Forestry Tasmania for a position where I could advance and make a difference in the environment, which, in Tasmania, was a high priority. As you can probably guess, this did not happen. The Forestry Commission in Tasmania had, during this time, a lengthy period where they did not recruit any new members. So with that in mind, I was a little dismayed but continued my studies at Alanvale.
After our final exams, a few of my mates decided that they were going to join the navy as they wanted to be fighter pilots. After some discussion, I thought I would tag along and see what they were on about, and we all ended up at the recruiting office in Launceston, which was located at an army reserve base in the city.
There were six of us who attended that first day, and after chatting with the recruiters, we were given appointments to return and undergo the initial testing for joining. I had been counselled, and the best option for me at that time was to become a medic. All my mates undertook the same preliminary exams but had an extra area to cover for prospective pilots. I was the only one who passed! Little did I know then that I was about to embark on a most amazing career for which I am ever thankful.
After I completed my schooling, I was at a bit of a loose end until my call-up to the navy. So after a week at home, I went to a nearby chicken farm and asked for a job. The interview was short and sweet. The boss asked if I had a pair of gumboots, which I did. He said to go home and get them –‘You are working this afternoon!’
After a fairly short wait of about two months, I received word via the local police that the navy wanted to talk to me. I was living outside a small town