Australia — Navy recruits march out of HMAS Cerberus

The Min­is­ter for Vet­er­ans’ Affairs and Min­is­ter for Defence Per­son­nel, Alan Grif­fin, today con­grat­u­lat­ed 117 new recruits who grad­u­at­ed from the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy Recruit School dur­ing a cer­e­mo­ny and parade at HMAS Cer­berus at Crib Point in Vic­to­ria.

Mr Grif­fin, accom­pa­nied by the Chief of Navy, Vice Admi­ral Russ Crane, was the review­ing offi­cer and inspect­ed the new recruits on parade who had suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed 11 weeks of inten­sive training.

“The grad­u­a­tion today of these men and women, in front of their fam­i­ly and friends is a sig­nif­i­cant occa­sion and will stand them in good stead as they com­mence their careers in the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy,” Mr Grif­fin said.

“In the com­ing years, the Aus­tralian peo­ple will place their trust in these sailors to serve with the Navy val­ues of loy­al­ty, integri­ty, hon­esty, courage, and above all, honour.

“These sailors have assumed an oblig­a­tion to the Aus­tralian com­mu­ni­ty that will take them across the seas, pit them against the most dif­fi­cult of chal­lenges, but ulti­mate­ly offer them the rewards of ser­vice in a close-knit team.

“The heavy respon­si­bil­i­ty the sailors have accept­ed today is one that they should be proud to bear, and from the dis­ci­pline and qual­i­ty of their pre­sen­ta­tion today, I know that they are wor­thy of Australia’s trust.

“These newest mem­bers of the Navy should be proud of their achieve­ments and as they embark on the next phase of their naval train­ing I would like to com­mend them on their choice of career and thank them for serv­ing their coun­try,” Mr Grif­fin said.

Vice Admi­ral Crane, him­self a for­mer junior recruit who rose through the ranks dur­ing his 40-year career said, “The Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy Recruit School has been train­ing and groom­ing new sailors for over 80 years. I think it is impor­tant to acknowl­edge the sig­nif­i­cant role played by the Recruit School staff in the devel­op­ment of the new recruits and the sig­nif­i­cance of the sup­port pro­vid­ed by their fam­i­ly and friends”.

The Com­mand­ing Offi­cer of the Roy­al Aus­tralian Navy Recruit School, Com­man­der Paul O’Grady, said, “HMAS Cer­berus is the Navy’s fore­most and largest train­ing estab­lish­ment and the Navy’s Recruit School plays a key role in induct­ing men and women into the Ser­vice, to enable them to think for them­selves, work with each oth­er and learn the nec­es­sary knowl­edge and skills to forge a spe­cial­ist career”.

Media con­tacts:
Cindy Ritchie (Alan Grif­fin): 02 6277 7820 or 0414 345 741
Defence Media Liai­son: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Press release
Min­is­te­r­i­al Sup­port and Pub­lic Affairs,
Depart­ment of Defence,
Can­ber­ra, Australia