Army man to miss Bendigo Christmas

STEVE White won’t get to spend Christmas with his family in Bendigo this year.Deployed overseas with the army two months ago, Captain White will spend December 25 on a mission in the Solomon Islands.He’s among hundreds of Australian troops and civilians serving the Australian defence force overseas away from family and friends during the holiday season.Captain White, who now lives in the Adelaide Hills, was born and bred in Bendigo and said he was the only one in the family not to stay, with his parents and sisters still living in the city.He went to Gravel Hill Primary School, Kangaroo Flat Tech and worked at the Bendigo Home and Hospital for the Aged before joining the army in 1982.In September he joined the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands as part of combined task force 635.“It’s providing whole-government support to the Solomon Islands’ government,” he said.“The military aspect is provided by troops from Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea forming a combined pacific nations’ task force in the Solomon Islands supporting the police.“We’re providing a four-tier response, so if things get out of hand and the police force can’t handle it, we’re called in to help.”Captain White’s role is in administration – he’s responsible for a number of tasks that keep the operation running smoothly.“I’m a personnel officer, so I’m responsible for supervising administration,” he said.“It’s a broad role that I do from personnel administration, getting people in and out of countries, correspondence, finance and the postal service.”Captain White will get a half-day off to celebrate Christmas with his unit who he said were a close bunch who have been together since mid-September.“For me, Christmas will be spent working until lunchtime,” he said.“From about 11am until 3pm there will be a rolling lunch because there’s over 420 people in the facility we’re working out of.“I think they’re putting on a fairly elaborate Christmas lunch.“I’ll go in and eat and then spend some time with the rest of the unit. There will be a few team games organised, a bit of fun.”It’s not the first time Captain White has spent Christmas away from home on a defence mission.He was deployed to Rawanda in 1994 shortly after the genocide and spent his first Christmas away over there.“I’ve been in the army 28 years and I’ve missed an awful lot of important occasions,” he said.“I often seem to be away for my wife’s birthday, which of course I don’t hear the end of.“It’s particularly hard on that day. But after a small period of reflection it’s all over and back to work.”But advancements in technology mean Captain White will still get to see and talk to his family and enjoy a laugh around the Christmas table with them.“We have free phone access back to Australia and I brought my laptop so I have access to wireless internet to Skype the family,” he said.“I’ll be able to sit at the Christmas table in Adelaide and Bendigo, on the screen with my family.“We’re also fortunate to have a really good welfare network. A lot of the blokes have formed really close relationships and are fairly tight.”Up to 2000 defence force personnel will be on missions in Australia and around the world this Christmas.