Navy Engineer Returns Home

When Sub-Lieutenant Chris Bone left Gore for the Navy in 2004, he never imagined he would one day return to the area as the Assistant Engineering Officer of one of the Navy’s newest ships, Offshore Patrol Vessel HMNZS WELLINGTON.

Within a year of joining the Navy, Chris had travelled the world. “I had been to 13 countries, at no cost to myself, by the time I was 21. Most young adults only get to do that on their OE, and they pay thousands to do it!”

By that stage Sub Lieutenant Bone thought his career couldn’t get any better, yet he was then selected to undergo Officer Training, and with that came the opportunity to go to University and obtain a degree. In 2011 he graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with Honours.

Educated at St Peters College in Gore, Sub Lieutenant Bones’ family are still in the area, and when the ship arrives in Bluff at the end of this week both he and a working party of crew members will undertake charity work for the Community Care Trust, an organisation that helps disabled people.

For Sub Lieutenant Bone, the Navy has been a great career choice, “I would definitely recommend the Navy, whether you want to be a chef, drive ships or be a technician or engineer. It doesn’t matter what profession, the Navy gives a lifestyle that other companies and corporates would find difficult to match.”

“The friends you make in the job are amazing; everyone you work with is going for a common goal, not just out for themselves. Joining the Navy was the best decision I ever made.”

HMNZS WELLINGTON is in Bluff over the period 16 – 19 February 2012, before working with the Department of Conservation conducting a resupply mission of the Auckland Islands.