RN Sailor Recognized for Accurate Weather Reports during Libyan Conflict

Leading Seaman Freddie Noakes stepped up into the role normally occupied by a Lieutenant during board HMS Liverpool’s deployment on operations on Libya, when the ship was providing naval gunfire support from the sea into Misrata during the Libyan conflict.

He received his Joint Commanders Commendation at a ceremony in Plymouth Thursday with his parents John and Susan watching admiringly. Freddie said:

“I am immensely proud to receive this award, I am pleased to be recognised, it is a huge honour and a great surprise.

“There aren’t many of these awards, the role of meteorological and hydrographic support in the military is not that well known so that makes this even more important to me.’’

The award citation said he provided exceptional support at a level well beyond that expected of one with only four years’ experience in the Navy and less in his role.

He was also at the lowest rank in the Navy (then an able seaman) when he stepped into the shoes of a far more experienced and higher-ranked officer.

He worked tirelessly over long hours to provide information to HMS Liverpool and other ships, despite little forecasting training and experience and contributed a great deal to the operational success of HMS Liverpool.

Commodore Jake Moores OBE ADC (Commander Devonport Flotilla), presented the award at HM Naval Base Devonport. He said:

“These awards are not given out lightly.

“Congratulations, you have done exceptionally well in making a huge success of your time with HMS Liverpool and thoroughly deserve this award.’’

Freddie, of Redditch, West Midlands, learned fast on the job in a high risk war zone forecasting weather in order to predict where the ship and others in the task force should be and when.

This helped the ship be most effective taking advantage of the best weather to fight the war on the sea by defending the ship against armed small boats and bombarding targets such as anti-aircraft defences on land.

Freddie works for the Royal Navy’s hydrographic and meteorological department at Plymouth. He was not expecting to be sent to the ship and ended up at short notice for four months in a team of one instead of two (aided by the ship’s helicopter flight observer) providing meteorological forecasts and local weather reports during a war in the place of a Lieutenant.

He also helped train the ship in understanding and the vital role of the weather and atmospheric conditions on the operational capability of warship at war.

He explained that knowledge of weather conditions are vital to enable the ship to receive information from aerial observers flying over intended targets and for the gunnery teams so they can take into account the affects of wind on missiles.

Excessive temperatures at flying height also affect helicopter flying efficiency, Freddie gathered this by launching weather balloons. He said:

 “I am in a role where I am deployed to ships worldwide needing our expertise and in this case it all happened so fast that I was on my own and with very little experience.

“So I just knuckled down and got on with it. I learned from the Lynx flight what they needed and how they worked.

“It is crucial to being able to fire accurately on targets that we know the wind and can recce the target through mist and cloud regularly, but we have to know this in advance, which is where I came in.

“Then I had to predict where the ship had to be, with the wind and tidal information combined, to be most effective and safe.

“As far as this award and my experience, I was just in the right place at the right time as far as I was concerned and did what was expected of me and maybe more.’’

Freddie has been serving on HMS Diamond and is now on leave.

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Naval Today Staff, January 22, 2013; Image: Royal Navy