Serving women the focus of this year’s Poppy Day
After 17-odd years of interviewing more than 400 veterans, Patrick Bronte has heardmore than the average person’s share of stories of courage, sacrifice and determination.
But it’s only been during the past few yearswhen interviewing female members of the military that he became truly aware of the tenacity required of them to succeed and excel in amaledominated arena.
This year’s annual RSA Poppy Appeal, tomorrow, is highlighting the experiences of women and the military – and none could bemore chuffed than Bronte, who hasmade it his life’s work to record and detail the experiences of New Zealand’s service men and women.
The Palmerston North-based man runs the website, ngatoa.co.nz, on which he is collating videos of the interviews he has recorded over the years.
This year the Returned Services Association has chosen to highlight the experiences of women and the military. That includes the women who have served, but also the womenwho have watched their sons, daughters, husbands or lovers depart without knowing if they will return.
Over the next few weeks the association will be releasing interviews conducted by Bronte with six women. Aged between 27 and 60, thesewomen have served in peacekeeping deployments in Bosnia, Bougainville, East Timor, Afghanistan, South Sudan and Mali.
They range in ranks from corporal to colonel and all but two are still in the armed forces.
‘‘We’re talking about remarkable acts, regardless of gender. Acts that saved innocent lives in the face of extreme danger and intense pressure. It was a great eye-opener for me, seeing the sort of leadership provided by women inways that were distinctly different to themen,’’ Bronte said.
Among those interviewed was Lieutenant Colonel Melanie Childs, who was fulfilling a role with the United Nations in South Sudanwhen a displaced persons camp came under fire.
‘‘These people are fleeing this war zone, and fleeing to come into the UN compound because they see that as safe. We had some of our troop-contributing countries pushing these people away, basically into a very unsafe location,’’ Childs told Bronte.
‘‘I remember trying to talk to one of the officers from the contributing country that were responsible for this particular part of the perimeter, and I was trying to explain that we need to let these people in, and we need to protect them.
‘‘He couldn’t understand a word I was saying, evenwith charades in the middle of a battle. He pulled out his phone and gave me his phone, so I could type it into Google Translate,’’ she said.
‘‘So I’m typing in my message to him on a smartphone while the artillery is coming in. It was just very surreal. Myself and others grouped up people we could until we could move them somewhere safer,’’ Childs said.
Bronte also interviewed Samantha Carter, the first female Petty Officer
Seaman Combat Specialist in the history of the Royal New Zealand Navy, who was posted overseas on counter narcotic and anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden onboard the Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Melbourne.
Carter spoke of boarding a small boat and apprehending a group of pirates that had fired at amerchant vessel.
The nine pirates were held under guard on the frigate for three days.
‘‘We found out they were from Somalia, so we headed back to the coast and were going to drop them off at the nearest town or villagewe could see. We saw heaps of vehicles coming down towards the beach... We got back to the ship and therewas this picture of vehicles with machine guns and people lying down with guns pointing towards us ... I’ve been training my whole career for something like this,’’ she said.
The RSA Poppy Appeal has run since 1922, and is New Zealand’s longest running charity street appeal. This year the appeal is being held the week before Anzac Day.
The RSA uses funds raised through the Poppy Appeal to support current and former servicemen and women of all ages and all service backgrounds. RSA support is available to people who have served operationally in places like Vietnam, Bosnia, East Timor and Afghanistan – aswell as personnel who haven’t deployed overseas.