Newest Grey Man Chapter all at sea!!
Thursday, February 4th, 2010These Armidale Class Patrol Boats are primarily tasked with border protection, fisheries patrols, immigration, customs and drug law enforcement operations, although two vessels are permanently assigned to protecting the oil and gas production facilities of the North West Shelf Venture. An Armidale class boat, the fictional HMAS Hammersley, appeared in the second and third seasons of Australian military drama series Sea Patrol.
Here at Grey Man we think the ship looks great and although Shane thinks that he and his crew are a little more rough around the edges, we think they are a great bunch of guys. Shane is by his own admission “the chubby grinning submariner (more shiny gold on my patch) in the front middle, the others are my lads”.
HMAS GLENELG at sea in Darwin
Captain and crew
Shane and his crew have been some of our most enthusiastic supporters with Able Seaman Brian Mobbs being continuously creative in raising charity money. According to Lt. Cdr Doolin, “So far Brian has had a poker competition, sold the rights to a swim-ex and charges people $2 every time we go to sea if they choose not to shave …. small amounts but he never lets up”.
Recently, Captain and crew had a chance to wear their Grey Man T-shirts and the Captain had this to say:
“Just a quick update as we have now left Colombo, Sri Lanka and as you can see we played the Sri Lankan Navy in cricket.
Unfortunately we learnt that you should NEVER play cricket in the subcontinent and we were soundly defeated. In the end ‘cricket’ was the real winner on the day!! We put up a gallant fight and as you can see The Grey Man shirts were worn with pride (about 20 of us) and at least made us look the part. Next stop will be more cricket in India!!
My crew wear the shirts at sea, I will get a pic from my bridge with 90% of my guys in their shirts, they love the design and colour and I have sold out of nearly everything now!!”
Sri Lankan cricket
They lost but still winners
Lieutenant Commander Doolin and his crew of AWARE 2, based in Darwin, man Australian Navy Patrol Vessels (pictured) and joined The Grey Man in November as the Darwin Chapter. Already this bunch of Salts have raised over $500 just between themselves, purchased Grey Man Shirts, and bought and distributed Grey Man pens. They have some great ideas and I get the impression they will be engaging the whole city of Darwin in fundraising when they return from duty overseas. Congratulations guys, you do a great job !
