NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2008 17
Sword of
honour
Rainey days ahead
NEARLY three years after they
brought aid to the people of Sri
Lanka, the men and women of
HMS Chatham were formally
FIRSTLY some statistics.
and ranks – RM, RN, FAA, surface Fleet and
honoured for their deeds.
There are 39,090 men and women in the
boats.
In January 2005, the ship and
Senior Service.
And that’s quite a challenge. Different issues
RFA Diligence rushed to the
Ratings and other ranks in the Royal Navy and
crop up at different times in different branches
Royal Marines account for 31,410 of those.
of the Services.
aid of Sri Lankans whose lives
A little over 800 personnel hold the rank of
There is, it seems, one constant: operational
and towns had been wrecked by
Warrant Offi cer, First Class.
tempo (perhaps unsurprisingly).
the Boxing Day tsunami which
And right at the top of the ratings tree sits
“Operational tempo is a key issue. Everyone
devastated coastal regions from
Andy Rainey, the newly-appointed Command
is busy,” he says.
Indonesia to India.
Warrant Offi cer – the father fi gure for all junior
“But as far as I’m concerned commitments
The two ships arrived in Sri
and senior ratings and other ranks.
today are probably more interesting than they
Lanka a week after the wave
It is a job with great power… and
were in the Cold War, which wasn’t that exciting.
struck and found communities
understandably great responsibility – the icing
We have to keep people excited to keep them
still in shock: 2,500 people in
on the cake of a life in the RN which began
in.”
the Batticaloa region were dead,
within days of the 1977 Silver Jubilee reviews
Thirty years ago when he signed up for the
another 1,000 were missing and
and continues today with Her Majesty still on
Queen’s shilling and the Cold War raged, there
60,000 had been made homeless.
the throne.
was no Command Warrant Offi cer (to be fair,
Teams from the vessels cleared
Of course, things in the RN have changed a
the size of the RN back in 1977 probably made
debris, re-fl oated and repaired
little over those three decades…
it impossible for a solitary WO to be the father
fi shing vessels, restored power,
Andy is a Falklands veteran whose career has
fi gure for all the ratings).
organised fresh water supplies,
been split between nuclear submarines, shore
But as the Navy shrank, so says Andy “it
tidied up schools, churches,
establishments, most recently, as Executive
became more and more evident that we needed
hospitals and orphanages, and put
Warrant Offi cer of HMS Somerset and Base someone at the top of the ratings”.
up a Bailey bridge.
Warrant Offi cer of HMS Raleigh. The result is the CWO, a post held to date
All those deeds, and many
That latter post gave the 47-year-old Devonian by Eddie Seaborne and Vic Parsons. The job
more, earned Chatham the
an excellent insight into the young people signing description is simple: to inform the Second Sea
Firmin Sword of Peace (formerly
on for a life in the RN these days. Lord about the opinions and concerns of RN
the Wilkinson Sword of Peace,
“If you look back to the 1970s, then we were and RM ratings and ranks and to ensure they are
renamed after swordmakers
all the same – all pretty much school-leaving age. all thoroughly informed about issues affecting
Firmin took up the mantle when
Now we are seeing a much more diverse group of them and the wider service.
Wilkinson closed their doors in
people bringing a huge amount of life experience Simple really. “We are changing 200 years
2005).
to the RN,” he says. of tradition, but it’s vital that there are good
The Sword of Peace is the
“But there is a constant thread. The Navy communications between offi cers and ratings,”
highest honour bestowed upon a
attracts people who want to do well, who want to says Andy. “It’s something both my predecessors
ship, formation or military unit
do a good job. And if you do a good job, you are made great inroads into.”
in the British Armed Forces for
more likely to make progress in your career and That means getting out and about, either
good deeds around the world.
earn more money. alone or accompanying the Second Sea Lord
It was presented to current
“But there is also something else in the RN. and other senior offi cers. And the presence of
CO Cdr Martin Connell and his
Call it Naval ethos, a can-do attitude.” Britain’s most senior rating amid a galaxy of top
predecessor, Capt Steve Chick
Andy Rainey walked through the gates of brass can, at times, be an icebreaker.
(now CO of HMS Illustrious)
Raleigh in June 1977. Actually, we say ‘Andy’ “It’s a good way to allow the lads and lasses
who directed the relief mission in Rainey when we mean ‘Mark’. For the fi rst 16 to ‘vent off’ – something which they might not
2005, plus Chatham sailors who years of his life, everyone knew him as Mark. It do to the same degree if there were only senior
took part in Operation Garron. was only when he saw his birth certifi cate with offi cers present,” Andy explains.
The citation for Chatham Andrew Mark Rainey that he discovered his real “As far as I’m concerned, a problem shared
says the ship and her sailors name. To this day, matelots call him Andy, his is a problem halved. There’s no such thing as a
“addressed much misery being family knows him as Mark. stupid question. If it’s important to you, then
suffered by the people of the With much of his career spent beneath the it’s important to me. I cannot, of course, always
Batticaloa district. Hope was waves as a sonar operator and coxswain rather guarantee you will get the answer you’re looking
restored to these proud people. than riding them, Andy hopes to offer a deep’s for.”
All members of the unit played unique perspective on Senior Service life in the If you don’t catch Andy on his travels around
their part and, without exception, higher echelons of the RN. the Fleet, you can email any issues you’d like him
found the task both rewarding But, he says, it’s important that he acts as the to look into via NavyStar at FLEET-2SLCNH ● As offi ces go, this one’s got character... WO1 Andy Rainey sits for his
and humbling.” ‘pan Navy’ voice on issues affecting all ratings CWO WO. portrait aboard HMS Victory, 2SL’s fl agship Picture: LA(Phot) Dave Jenkins
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