Long Look 2008
By Sarah Chandler

Corporal Duco Nieuwland, 26, a Movement Operator from Linton’s 2 Log Battalion, has been based at Marchwood camp, Southampton for the past four months as part of the Long Look exchange programme. Located an hour south of London, Marchwood camp is Britain’s only military port. It provides the training ground for all Army port and maritime personnel in the UK and its150 civilian and 600 military personnel support various marine operations. At Marchwood the British Army have two of their own ships and also access to civilian ships.

When I caught up with Corporal Nieuwland he had only been at Marchwood for a month but had already travelled to Cardiff and Portsmouth, and to Cornwall for an Adventure Training team building, which included kayaking, paintball and golf. He’d also been involved in the Army Surf Kayaking Championships in Devon, and had made good contacts and friends at the camp. “You’re never wanting for people to go out with, and they’re all interested to know how things are done in NZ”. His only complaint related to the food “it all seems to come straight out of the deep fryer here!” he said.

Duco’s involvement in the Long Look exchange came about after he was approached by Platoon Head Quarters. Although he’d only just married and was somewhat reluctant to be away from home, he viewed the exchange as a great opportunity to do something different with his Movement Operator role “especially as we don’t move that much stuff in New Zealand”, he said.

Duco has worked closely with personnel from many other nations in the past. He was part of the theatre extraction team in Timor Leste and also deployed to the Solomon Islands. He spent three months to Antarctica, and in 2007 was based at Bagram, Afghanistan, which he describes as “more exciting than scary”. Duco arrived in the UK just in time to participate in three Anzac Day parades in London – including one at the New Zealand and Australian monument at Hyde Park, and another at Westminster

Speaking last week, at the conclusion of his time away, Duco said the highlight of the exchange was a “ship to shore” operations trip to Belize; a small country just underneath Mexico. “There was no port there so the vessel anchored about 1 km off shore and we transported stuff to the shore using a military barge called a MexeFloat. We worked for 64 hours solid, with no one getting more than 4 hours sleep during that time. They made up for it by giving us 4 days off in Cancun, however - which was just spectacular!”

About Long Look Exchange
The Long Look Exchange programme is an annual reciprocal exchange of junior and non commissioned officers from the three services of the UK Armed forces, the Australian Defence Force, and the NZDF. Its purpose is to broaden the experience and professional knowledge of individual exchange personnel through exposure to another military culture. Long Look also helps build relationships and links between the three militaries and to foster good will between them. Often exchange personnel are able to obtain additional military skills and expertise while away, however they may not participate in any military operations other than normal peacetime training. Similarly, personnel require specific approval to travel to a third country or operational deployment. Long Look exchanges usually run for four months from late April each year, meaning exchange personnel participate in Anzac Day commemorations in a new environment at the outset.