Gemma Day: RNZAF Flight Lieutenant
From Kamo to Kandahar, it’s all in a Day’s work: Published in the Northern Advocate, 17 October 2009.
The vast barren landscape of war-torn Afghanistan couldn’t seem further away from the quiet suburbia of West Auckland.
If it wasn’t for the camouflage gear, it would have been hard to believe the petite, beaming young woman greeting me at the door had travelled to some of the world’s most isolated and dangerous spots.
Gemma Day had just returned to her Ranui home after a day at the Whenuapai Air Base.
“I’m really quite house proud so I like to look after my house, do my garden. I can’t wait for summer.”
The base is in the midst of a week long push-up challenge.
“We’ve been dropping every hour and dropping out push-ups. I did 150 yesterday, but I am so sore I only did 60 today. Apparently tomorrow I am going to have to try and do 150.”
Her blue eyes and high cheek bones are framed by lightly streaked hair pulled back in the sensible military style. Her neatly manicured fingers and pink toe nails peek out from her baggy uniform as she settles onto her large black sofa; colourful coffee mug in hand.
Gemma is a Flight Lieutenant with New Zealand Air Force and says her 12 years in the force have flown by.
She manages 35 people within the suppliers unit.
“We call it air movements - working with the aircraft when they go overseas, doing all the loading and unloading.”
“That’s how I’ve managed to have so many different experiences and go overseas and do all sorts of different things.”
“All these different opportunities come up and I’ve never thought of leaving,” she laughs.
Some of the perks have included dinner with Prince William who she describes as “really tall and lot more bald than what the photos had shown” and the current Governor General, Sir Anand Satyanand.
***
In 2003, Gemma was based in the Middle East for six weeks.
One day Gemma and a group of officers were visiting a large tourist town. They were warned there was a chance they were being watched and their minders were sent ahead to keep lookout.
“I was about to go back to the bus after going out shopping and I had this girl come right up into my face and just start taking photographs. That really freaked me out. I just had this horrible feeling that I was having my photo taken for them (al Qaeda).”
“Lucky nothing’s ever happened since, but it was enough to really scare me for awhile.”
Her role in the region was to monitor the supplies and people coming in and out of Afghanistan.
“Al Qaeda were tapping the phones we had to be really, really careful. For this particular time there was some stuff that needed to be moved and it was quite sensitive.”
In order to speak freely and organise the move with the team in Afghanistan, Gemma had to fly into the war-zone.
Coming into Kandahar airfield the view was of a barren, hilly and dry land; the plane flying high to avoid enemy fire.
“At the top of the Hercules there’s a little window where you can look over the whole aircraft. My job was to look out for explosions.”
On the ground below the crew spotted three large explosions that looked like mortar rounds and the bright flashes of small arms fire.
“They could have been firing at us for all we knew.”
Gemma remembers the short, steep landing, ‘almost like a rollercoaster drop’.
“My heart was racing. I was on top of the moon when I got home.”
***
Kirsty Howie is Gemma’s younger sister. She describes their childhood in Whangarei as ‘pretty cruisey’.
The family immigrated to New Zealand from Essex when Gemma was four years old.
“We’re very alike,” says Kirsty, in the same bubbly voice as Gemma.
“I always looked up to her. I copied her a lot. She was a really good role model.”
Kirsty says she was always more of a tomboy and was surprised when Gemma left her 7th form year to join the Air Force.
The family are used to Gemma’s long trips overseas, but nothing could prepare them for when Gemma was deployed to the Middle East.
“We were seeing all the news coverage of soldiers getting injured,” says Kirsty.
Not being able to communicate freely was hard - “it was very scary”.
***
Gemma was on call over Christmas 2004 working at the Ohakea base.
“I remember being at home and my boss gave me call and I knew that something was wrong.”
She was told to turn on the news and get ready to move in 72 hours. This was how Gemma first learned of the Boxing Day tsunami.
Her phone rang again and her boss said she now had 24 hours to move.
A third phone call told her to head to Auckland immediately.
Gemma pulled her team together, but found it nearly impossible to get flights to Auckland.
“We finally managed to get a flight out of Wanganui, but as we got there the Herc that was going overseas had already left.”
Gemma and her team of three followed on a Qantas flight shortly after.
As soon as they landed the kiwis merged with the Australian team and for the first time in a long while New Zealand took the lead.
Gemma ran a unit of 12 from Madiun airport receiving supplies- mainly baby products and milk - and sending them out to Banda Aceh.
“Where I was there was no devastation. It was just a staging point for all the stores going out.”
Working in a country like Indonesia posed a number of problems, for example, the danger of sub-standard equipment.
“We got forklifts off the Indonesians and they had no brakes, but then you’re in this quandary where we really needed to use them.”
And then rumours of corruption began to circulate.
“We took some media up with us and unfortunately we ended up taking someone who didn’t really like us and they started reporting that we were taking bribes from the Indonesians”
“That was just so disheartening to hear because there we were working 20 hour days and here are our own people saying we were taking bribes.”
They later discovered bribes were being taken by the Indonesians to let people in and out of the base.
“They gave us their priorities and they were taking bribes for what they were going to put on those manifests. That was horrible.”
To make matters worse, the Air Force received threats from an Indonesian militant group.
“There you were, you thought you were just going to be doing your job and there were all these security threats as well.
“We weren’t even in a war zone and that wasn’t even the type of thing you thought you’d be going into.”
***
Michele Thomson, Flight Lieutenant, has known Gemma on and off for years before their officer training in 2002 cemented their friendship.
“It’s easy to take for granted some of the things she’s done. For us it seems like just another day.”
She says Gemma biggest achievements are her commission and her part-time study.
“She came from not having a lot to being really successful.”
Michele says Gemma spent her recent 30th birthday (which she kept very quiet) organising and running an inter-base squash tournament.
“She’s very committed to the Air Force and puts a lot in. It’s your life.”
***
For five months from October 2005, Gemma called Antarctica home.
“My official title, which I thought sounded kind of cool, was Officer Commanding McMurdo Terminal Team.”
Gemma was in charge of all of the ground handlers in the cargo team who were responsible for loading and unloading all of the flights that come in and out of Antarctica.
At the height of summer the base held around 900 people, and over winter about 300.
“We worked shifts, six days on and one day off, for five months. I was quite lucky they were 10 hour days - sometimes I had to work longer than that. It was 24 hour daylight.”
Gemma used her free time to explore the untouched wilderness.
“We got to go hiking to some really amazing walks and go out to the different old huts, Scott’s Hut, Shackleton’s Hut. It was something else to step into a building that was used so long ago.”
But the thing that really struck with Gemma was the lack of smell.
With everything so clean, cool and dry, she could smell nothing in Antarctica. Coming back through Christchurch airport the first thing to hit Gemma’s nose was the smell from the carpet.
“It smelt like rotten, wet dog. That was my first memory coming back - I wish it was cut grass or something.”
***
The next round of vacancies for Afghanistan have come up, but Gemma won’t be volunteering for that duty.
“I don’t want to go to Afghanistan again right now. We’ve had a lot of incidents just lately, with roadside bombs and that sort of stuff. I don’t really fancy going back there.”
“In some ways unfortunately you think, we’ve been lucky up until now does this mean something’s going to happen soon?”
When it’s time to leave, I notice two delicate pairs of shoes - around size four - flanked by a polished pair of equally tiny army boots neatly lined by the front door.
“I’m still a girl - I’m not going to play Rambo. I’m glad I don’t exude Air Force.”
The vast barren landscape of war-torn Afghanistan couldn’t seem further away from the quiet suburbia of West Auckland.
If it wasn’t for the camouflage gear, it would have been hard to believe the petite, beaming young woman greeting me at the door had travelled to some of the world’s most isolated and dangerous spots.
Gemma Day had just returned to her Ranui home after a day at the Whenuapai Air Base.
“I’m really quite house proud so I like to look after my house, do my garden. I can’t wait for summer.”
The base is in the midst of a week long push-up challenge.
“We’ve been dropping every hour and dropping out push-ups. I did 150 yesterday, but I am so sore I only did 60 today. Apparently tomorrow I am going to have to try and do 150.”
Her blue eyes and high cheek bones are framed by lightly streaked hair pulled back in the sensible military style. Her neatly manicured fingers and pink toe nails peek out from her baggy uniform as she settles onto her large black sofa; colourful coffee mug in hand.
Gemma is a Flight Lieutenant with New Zealand Air Force and says her 12 years in the force have flown by.
She manages 35 people within the suppliers unit.
“We call it air movements - working with the aircraft when they go overseas, doing all the loading and unloading.”
“That’s how I’ve managed to have so many different experiences and go overseas and do all sorts of different things.”
“All these different opportunities come up and I’ve never thought of leaving,” she laughs.
Some of the perks have included dinner with Prince William who she describes as “really tall and lot more bald than what the photos had shown” and the current Governor General, Sir Anand Satyanand.
***
In 2003, Gemma was based in the Middle East for six weeks.
One day Gemma and a group of officers were visiting a large tourist town. They were warned there was a chance they were being watched and their minders were sent ahead to keep lookout.
“I was about to go back to the bus after going out shopping and I had this girl come right up into my face and just start taking photographs. That really freaked me out. I just had this horrible feeling that I was having my photo taken for them (al Qaeda).”
“Lucky nothing’s ever happened since, but it was enough to really scare me for awhile.”
Her role in the region was to monitor the supplies and people coming in and out of Afghanistan.
“Al Qaeda were tapping the phones we had to be really, really careful. For this particular time there was some stuff that needed to be moved and it was quite sensitive.”
In order to speak freely and organise the move with the team in Afghanistan, Gemma had to fly into the war-zone.
Coming into Kandahar airfield the view was of a barren, hilly and dry land; the plane flying high to avoid enemy fire.
“At the top of the Hercules there’s a little window where you can look over the whole aircraft. My job was to look out for explosions.”
On the ground below the crew spotted three large explosions that looked like mortar rounds and the bright flashes of small arms fire.
“They could have been firing at us for all we knew.”
Gemma remembers the short, steep landing, ‘almost like a rollercoaster drop’.
“My heart was racing. I was on top of the moon when I got home.”
***
Kirsty Howie is Gemma’s younger sister. She describes their childhood in Whangarei as ‘pretty cruisey’.
The family immigrated to New Zealand from Essex when Gemma was four years old.
“We’re very alike,” says Kirsty, in the same bubbly voice as Gemma.
“I always looked up to her. I copied her a lot. She was a really good role model.”
Kirsty says she was always more of a tomboy and was surprised when Gemma left her 7th form year to join the Air Force.
The family are used to Gemma’s long trips overseas, but nothing could prepare them for when Gemma was deployed to the Middle East.
“We were seeing all the news coverage of soldiers getting injured,” says Kirsty.
Not being able to communicate freely was hard - “it was very scary”.
***
Gemma was on call over Christmas 2004 working at the Ohakea base.
“I remember being at home and my boss gave me call and I knew that something was wrong.”
She was told to turn on the news and get ready to move in 72 hours. This was how Gemma first learned of the Boxing Day tsunami.
Her phone rang again and her boss said she now had 24 hours to move.
A third phone call told her to head to Auckland immediately.
Gemma pulled her team together, but found it nearly impossible to get flights to Auckland.
“We finally managed to get a flight out of Wanganui, but as we got there the Herc that was going overseas had already left.”
Gemma and her team of three followed on a Qantas flight shortly after.
As soon as they landed the kiwis merged with the Australian team and for the first time in a long while New Zealand took the lead.
Gemma ran a unit of 12 from Madiun airport receiving supplies- mainly baby products and milk - and sending them out to Banda Aceh.
“Where I was there was no devastation. It was just a staging point for all the stores going out.”
Working in a country like Indonesia posed a number of problems, for example, the danger of sub-standard equipment.
“We got forklifts off the Indonesians and they had no brakes, but then you’re in this quandary where we really needed to use them.”
And then rumours of corruption began to circulate.
“We took some media up with us and unfortunately we ended up taking someone who didn’t really like us and they started reporting that we were taking bribes from the Indonesians”
“That was just so disheartening to hear because there we were working 20 hour days and here are our own people saying we were taking bribes.”
They later discovered bribes were being taken by the Indonesians to let people in and out of the base.
“They gave us their priorities and they were taking bribes for what they were going to put on those manifests. That was horrible.”
To make matters worse, the Air Force received threats from an Indonesian militant group.
“There you were, you thought you were just going to be doing your job and there were all these security threats as well.
“We weren’t even in a war zone and that wasn’t even the type of thing you thought you’d be going into.”
***
Michele Thomson, Flight Lieutenant, has known Gemma on and off for years before their officer training in 2002 cemented their friendship.
“It’s easy to take for granted some of the things she’s done. For us it seems like just another day.”
She says Gemma biggest achievements are her commission and her part-time study.
“She came from not having a lot to being really successful.”
Michele says Gemma spent her recent 30th birthday (which she kept very quiet) organising and running an inter-base squash tournament.
“She’s very committed to the Air Force and puts a lot in. It’s your life.”
***
For five months from October 2005, Gemma called Antarctica home.
“My official title, which I thought sounded kind of cool, was Officer Commanding McMurdo Terminal Team.”
Gemma was in charge of all of the ground handlers in the cargo team who were responsible for loading and unloading all of the flights that come in and out of Antarctica.
At the height of summer the base held around 900 people, and over winter about 300.
“We worked shifts, six days on and one day off, for five months. I was quite lucky they were 10 hour days - sometimes I had to work longer than that. It was 24 hour daylight.”
Gemma used her free time to explore the untouched wilderness.
“We got to go hiking to some really amazing walks and go out to the different old huts, Scott’s Hut, Shackleton’s Hut. It was something else to step into a building that was used so long ago.”
But the thing that really struck with Gemma was the lack of smell.
With everything so clean, cool and dry, she could smell nothing in Antarctica. Coming back through Christchurch airport the first thing to hit Gemma’s nose was the smell from the carpet.
“It smelt like rotten, wet dog. That was my first memory coming back - I wish it was cut grass or something.”
***
The next round of vacancies for Afghanistan have come up, but Gemma won’t be volunteering for that duty.
“I don’t want to go to Afghanistan again right now. We’ve had a lot of incidents just lately, with roadside bombs and that sort of stuff. I don’t really fancy going back there.”
“In some ways unfortunately you think, we’ve been lucky up until now does this mean something’s going to happen soon?”
When it’s time to leave, I notice two delicate pairs of shoes - around size four - flanked by a polished pair of equally tiny army boots neatly lined by the front door.
“I’m still a girl - I’m not going to play Rambo. I’m glad I don’t exude Air Force.”
nada17oct09a015.pdf | |
File Size: | 1140 kb |
File Type: |