After steaming 6,368 nautical miles, taking part in Exercise LUMBAS 14, commemorating 70 years since the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, and visiting four South East Asian ports, HMAS Larrakia (with crew Attack Four embarked) has returned to Darwin Naval Base.
Leaving Australia in mid September, Larrakia’s first port visit was Sandakan in Malaysian Borneo, visiting Royal Malaysian Naval colleagues and a former Japanese Prisoner of War camp, at which some 2,700 Australian soldiers, sailors and airmen were interned from 1942 until the end of the Second World War.
A four-day stopover in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, undertaking activities with the Vietnam People’s Navy coincided with a trip to the country by Chief of Navy Vice Admiral Tim Barrett.
Larrakia then travelled to the Philippine city of Davao for Exercise LUMBAS 14 to focus on joint civil, military and maritime law enforcement operations including boarding party scenarios, communications exercises, personnel exchanges and replenishments at sea.
In Tacloban, also in the Philippines, the ship’s company took part in commemorations marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf which were attended by Philippine President Benigo S Aquino III, Commander of the US Seventh Fleet Vice Admiral Robert Thomas, Philippine Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces General Gregorio Pio Catapang and all three Filipino Service Chiefs.
Involving regional cooperation, a combined maritime exercise and recognition of an important period in Naval history, the deployment was not only a success from a professional standpoint but also on a personal level for the ship’s company.
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Press release, Image: Australian Navy