GRIFFITHS, Simon Campbell

E993512, Lieutenant Commander, Royal New Zealand Navy

CITATION

New Zealand Distinguished Service Decoration

New Year Honours List 2012

Lieutenant Commander Simon Griffiths is the Commanding Officer of the Navy’s Offshore Patrol Vessel HMNZS Wellington. He led the ship through the introduction into service trials and unit readiness evaluation. The successful conclusion was the ship’s operational deployment in February 2011 to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. This was the first Navy visit to the area in 40 years and while there is much historical information on operations in the area, there was neither practical experience operating a vessel like the HMNZS Wellington nor current knowledge of ice navigation.

While the ship was departing the Ross Sea, a distress signal was received from a recreational adventure vessel. With limited communications back to New Zealand due to bad weather conditions, he instituted a considered and measured approach to the call. The ship spent 12 hours conducting an extensive, but what provided to be unsuccessful, search for the yacht or her life boat and crew.

KNOWN AWARDS

New Zealand Distinguished Service Decoration

NOTES

Born

Died

THE PRO PATRIA PROJECT