RAA Liaison Letter 2024 - 2025 Edition

RAA Liaison Letter 2024 / 2025 Edition 16 achievements (details of other prize winners are at pages 42-45. The major prize for the annual recipients of the Ewan, Mattner and Citizen Gunner awards is an overseas trip to visit ABCA allies. These trips which were suspended due to the COVID 19 pandemic will resume this year with four current and previous winners heading to the UK in September to visit Royal Artillery units. These awards are funded by the Gunner Fund which relies solely on contributions from you, the Gunner family. Following the disappointment of the decision to cancel the new museum at the front gate of Puckapunyal it is pleasing to see an alternative solution has been found thanks to Army Headquarters and the Australian Army History Unit. The old Armoured Museum located inside the base has been refurbished. To be known as the Australian Army Museum Puckapunyal it will include our nationally significant artillery collection that has been held in storage since the Artillery Museum at North Head closed in 2011. Opening in the second half of 2025 the Museum is looking for three to four RAA SERCAT 3/5 staff (Bombardier to Captain) and volunteers, ideally with Gunner knowledge or an interest in history. These roles will be critical to ensuring the Gunner story is told, so please think about joining the team (see details on page 26). Over my tenure as RCC I have been fortunate to connect with several Gunner associations and organisations. It is this myriad of groups that help us remain connected across the past, present and future. They give true meaning to the saying ‘Once a Gunner; Always a Gunner’. On behalf of the Gunner community, I would like to express our deepest appreciation to the volunteers who give tirelessly of their time to run these organisations, arrange events and sponsor projects. I welcome contact from these groups to better understand what you are doing and hear your views so that where possible I can advocate on your behalf or lend support. Ubique, Craig Furini New Colonel Commandant 16th Regiment RAA Colonel (Honorary) Bernard V. White Colonel (Hon) White was born in the Philippines, migrating as a child to Australia in the late 1970s; growing up in Geelong, Victoria where he was educated at St Joseph’s Christian Brothers College, Newtown. Colonel (Hon) White joined the Army in 1991 and was initially a Gunner on an M198 Medium Howitzer before attending RMC Duntroon where he graduated into the Royal Australian Artillery as a Field Gun Officer. His military career has seen him serve in every Regular Australian Artillery Regiment across all three streams (Field, Air Defence and Locating), the School of Artillery, as a Kapooka and Duntroon Instructor, in two Infantry Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment, and in Force-Level Headquarters as the Deputy G5 (Plans) and as the Military Assistant to the Commander. He was also the Capability Development Project Manager for LAND 17 - Artillery Replacement which introduced the M777 Lightweight Howitzer, Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (AFATDS) and the Digital Terminal Control System (DTCS) into service. His operational experience includes deployment with INTERFET on OPERATION WARDEN in East Timor in 1999 as an ‘A’ Battery Forward Observer, and as an Infantry Platoon Commander, with the 3 RAR (Parachute Battalion Group). He was the last independent Battery Commander of 131 Surveillance & Target Acquisition Battery when he trained in Clovis, New Mexico USA, qualifying on the inaugural ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Operator and Mission Commander Course. He subsequently deployed on OPERATION CATALYST to Southern Iraq in 2006, commanding the Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition & Reconnaissance Battery in Overwatch Battle Group (West) 2. In 2007, as part of OPERATION SLIPPER, he led the planning and technical reconnaissance into Uruzgan, Afghanistan to establish UAV operations in support of the Special Operations Task Group and the Combined Taskforce based at Tarin Kowt.