NOT YOUR 9 TO 5
just over 600 miles off the Somali coast last October. We were tasked to offer as- sistance to her crew, who had retreated into a secure citadel within the ship.
‘In conjunction with a US frig- ate, we approached at high speed into a few hundred yards, launched our aircraft and boarding teams, and due to the overmatch, MV Monte- cristo was liberated success- fully. ‘More recently, we were in- volved in the capture of 14 well armed suspected pirates from their Mother Ship dhow. Mother Ships act as a base from which smaller, faster skiffs are launched in order to attack merchant vessels. ‘Initially the dhow would not stop, but after being ‘per- suaded’ by the use of non-
lethal, non-disabling shots from our aircraft, plus having heavily armed Royal Marines racing towards them in RIBs, they thought better of it and the dhow stopped.’ But it’s not all work for RFA crew, as one of Duncan’s more memorable experiences proves: ‘Whilst I was the RFA planner stationed in the Amer- ican Naval Base in Manama, released. We had an open-air ‘movie night’, where we met and chatted with several of been invited along, including Sigourney Weaver, Michelle - ducer James Cameron. ‘During the same tour, I also met astronauts Neil Armstrong and Jim Lovell.’
Duncan, aged 49, has served
in the RFA since 1995, during which time he met his wife, Rose, who is now a senior Queen Elizabeth.
Although his family came from Mull, Duncan was born in Lochgilphead and attended Kilmore and Kilninver pri- mary schools and Oban High School.
He worked as an auxilliary coastguard in Oban before joining the infamous MV St Just (in the days before she was caught off Seil Island full of drugs). A stint with Deholm Ship Management, travel- ling between Europe and the USA, the Amazon, Australia and New Zealand ended in redundancy and a subse- quent summer season on the Hebridean Princess gave him a renewed appeciation for his west coast home and he eventually settled in Oban. His mother, Margaret, still lives in Kilmore.
‘Even though I have travelled the world and seen some better the sight than the one that greets you as you sail up the Sound Of Mull, late on a with the sun setting over the hills,’ he said.
Victoria during a patrol of the Middle East.
‘I hate to sound boring, but I enjoy the diversity of life at sea, especially in my current job. Very seldom are any two days the same. but present operational com- mitments, by which I mean pirate activity, do not adhere to a schedule!’
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