One in 12 men and women ensure the Navy’s global Christmas presence

You’re probably thinking of last-minute Christmas presents and drooling at the prospect of turkey with all the trimmings in the bosom of your family.

For nearly 3,000 sailors, air and ground crew and Royal Marines such thoughts are a distant dream this festive season.

Around one in 12 members of the Naval Service – Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Fleet Auxiliary – are deployed or on duty over the Christmas period.

Indeed, given their programmes over the coming days, some ships have already celebrated the big day.

December 18 was Christmas Day aboard HMS Somerset, which is in the Indian Ocean helping to safeguard maritime trade, with a church service, carol service and Christmas dinner. Cue lots of Santa hats, officers serving meals to ratings – all traditional festive fare. (In anticipation of Saturday night, the funnel’s been prepared and a ‘Santa stop here’ sign readied…).

Listeners in Devon will hopefully be able to hear a interview with the frigate’s captain Cdr Paul Bristowe on December 25 on BBC local radio, while HMS Middleton have lined up a similar chat with BBC Radio Solent.

For every ship, submarine, squadron and unit deployed it’s been business as usual to the very end. Only this week HMS Argyll, deployed in the Gulf, has been exercising with the American patrol ship USS Firebolt, carrying out fire-fighting and battle damage training, with the ship’s company closed up at action stations in anti-flash for the sake of realism. Argyll will be at sea on Christmas Day keeping the sea lanes open for lawful maritime trade.

Ships away over Christmas stocked up with most of the things they needed to celebrate before leaving the UK – crackers, cards, presents, decorations, frozen turkeys – while British Forces Post Office has striven to deliver last-minute items to and from deployed units.

In his end-of-year message to Naval personnel, First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope said:

“All our thoughts are with those facing Christmas without loved ones – in particular those who have been killed in action or who have died in service. And we pay tribute to those wounded in action or in the course of duty.

“We also remember over this Christmas period nearly 3,000 sailors and Royal Marines are away from the UK – serving in Afghanistan, deployed in some 20 ships and submarines, or on operations elsewhere in the world – and their families back home.”

For the record deployed or on duty over the Christmas and New Year are:

• Afghanistan: the ‘eyes in the sky’ of 854 Naval Air Squadron, the specialist helicopter repair team of 1710 Naval Air Squadron, bomb disposal experts of Fleet Diving Unit 3 along with a number of individual augmentees attached to joint units across the country.
• East of Suez: Minehunters Middleton, Quorn, Pembroke and Ramsey, plus their support ship RFA Lyme Bay; on maritime security patrols: Argyll, Somerset, RFA Fort Victoria, Fleet Protection Group Royal Marines; surveying: Echo; providing stores, fuel and engineering support: RFA Wave Knight, RFA Diligence and staff in the UK Maritime Component HQ in Bahrain.
• North Atlantic: RFA Fort Rosalie patrolling ready to react to Hurricane disaster relief and Counter Narcotics Operations.
• South Atlantic: providing support and reassurance to British citizens: Clyde, Montrose, supported by tanker RFA Gold Rover; surveying: Protector, Enterprise
  Mediterranean: Gibraltar Squadron (Sabre and Scimitar) protecting the Rock and its waters
• In the UK: search and rescue fliers of 771 Naval Air Squadron in Culdrose and HMS Gannet in Prestwick are on-call 24/7, while the Fleet Ready Escort stands ready to respond to events, as does an RFA tanker as well as bomb disposal teams in Plymouth, Portsmouth and Faslane; in addition, RN medics are working shifts in NHS hospitals around the UK and staff at the Northwood Maritime Operations Centre.
• Trafalgar-class hunter-killer submarine HMS Triumph is on patrol as is one of the nation’s four strategic deterrent boats, conducting a mission the Silent Service has performed around the clock for more than 40 years.

This is our last scheduled update of 2011. May we thank all our regular website visitors for their continued support over the past 12 months.

A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all and Godspeed the men and women of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Fleet Air Arm and Royal Fleet Auxiliary wherever they serve protecting our nation’s interests.