Sailors' Stories
Meet real Navy people like you
There are 2,300 personnel in the Navy. That's 2,300 individual lives being lived, and real stories being created every single day. Meet a few of them below, and see how they are taking their passions, and turning them into careers with passion and purpose.
Leading Marine Technician (Electrical)
Shotaro Hashimoto
Leading Marine Technician (Electrical) Shotaro Hashimoto is a very busy sailor on board a very busy vessel. As the ship's Electrical Maintainer, Shotaro's day-to-day work at sea is usually around fault-finding and carrying out rectifications, although remember that the downside is that at sea, resources are limited!
Learning Development Officer
Sophie Barry
Aligning university education with the opportunities the Royal New Zealand Navy offers, provides Westport sailor with a new career as a Navy Learning Development Officer.
Ordinary Medic
Mia Davies
Navy STEM programme launches Upper Hutt student into medic career. The opportunity to combine a love of the sea with the desire to help people has made a career in the Royal New Zealand Navy the best of both worlds for Ordinary Medic.
Marine Engineer Officer
Brock Longworth
Navy offers Whangarei teen a dream opportunity. Less than a year after leaving school, the 18-year-old has completed the six-month Junior Officer Common Training (JOCT) with the Royal New Zealand Navy and will now start a four-year Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (with honours) degree to become a marine engineer.
Real New Zealand Sailors' Stories
Warrant Officer Cryptologic Technician
Chris McKeich
Sailor's input to United Nations Command while deployed to South Korea in support of the Armistice Agreement between North and South Korea.
Ordinary Seamanship Combat Specialist.
Tayla Taupaki
No two days are the same in the Royal New Zealand Navy and sometimes you have to eat quickly to fit all the tasks in. You never know what to expect the following day, which is the exciting thing about the service for a newly minted sailor from Whangamata.
Warfare Officer
Brock West
Brock started as a chef, then his career took him places he'd never imagined.
Supply Officer
Erica Williams
As a dancer, Erica found her passion. In the Navy, she found her purpose.
