Defence service recognised

Two members of the New Zealand Defence Force recieved the Distinguished Service Decoration at an investiture ceremony at the Wellington  Town Hall on 25 March 2009.   Pictured with Brigadier Phil Gibbons, Deputy Chief of Army, were (centre) Warrant Officer Neil Roberts, Upper Hutt, and Gunner Phillip Manning, of Palmerston North. 

Mr Roberts has served as warrant officer with the Royal New Zealand Navy since January 2006.  He was instrumental in arranging the first ever regional navies' warrant officers' seminar held in Auckland, which is a benchmark, other Navies are, now looking to emulate.  He has also worked closely with the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet to develop an enhanced programme in Hawai'i for the Navy's sailors and has instituted a comprehensive range of international engagement activities between the RNZN and other navies.  

Mr Manning was on sentry duty at the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team site in Bamyan in March 2008 when an altercation developed between a member of the Afghan National Police, who was also on sentry duty and another policeman from the Regional Training Centre, who was attempting to enter the compound together, with an unauthorised Afghani soldier.  The RTC policeman snatched the Afghani sentry's radio, who retaliated by striking the RTC policeman with an AK machine gun magazine.  Mr Manning intervened, by placing himself between the two policemen and disarming the RTC policeman of his pistol and the rocks with which he was assaulting the sentry.