T200: Come in ships - your time is up!
Published Monday 27th June 2005
Lt Cdr Iain Doran
Military officers are often asked to undertake complete tasks but many pale into insignificance when compared to one Royal Navy officer's latest challenge.
Meet naval warfare instructor Lieutenant Commander Iain Doran. Iain is the International Fleet Review Operations Officer. In short he has the unenviable task of getting 160 plus vessels into their respective positions on the Solent so that the Review can go ahead.
A huge challenge, Iain described what it has been like bringing all the various strands of the project together:
"In many ways this is a typical Ops job, in that I am responsible for sorting out many of the details for the event and liaising with all the interested parties.
"However this particular task covers a variety of topics, from navigation, communications, security, aviation, ceremonial, shore patrols, logistics such as fuel and water, administration, catering, guest management. The list goes on!
"There are so many different issues to deal with, all are equally important and all have an effect on other areas. It’s a huge project with many specialist areas and my job is to bring it all together."
The Fleet Review team is essentially a core of about twelve people, all doing different tasks and helping to coordinate everything. The overall project team, however, is much larger. It is the sheer diversity of the project that has been the biggest challenge for Iain.
"We have 36 navies and 58 foreign warships taking part, not to mention our own navy vessels along with the merchant navy vessels and tall ships.
"1977 was the last time we did anything on this scale. It’s not just military input, but also the civilian organisations along with the foreign and domestic involvement."
One of his biggest tasks has been ensuring that all the various participants from around the world get a 'run ashore' during their time in the UK.
"Trying to deliver a workable solution to getting the 25,000 sailors who will be out on the water back to shore so that they can enjoy the event for themselves has been a huge challenge.
"We expect to be shifting up to 12,500 sailors in any one day and this is obviously quite complex."
Iain is a warfare officer by trade, currently 'on loan' from Flag Officer Sea Training:
"My normal job is out at sea training frigates and destroyers. Of course this is massively different!
"But I do think everybody involved is going to be pleased when the event finally gets going. It’s been a long time in the planning and preparation, some personnel have been working on the project for two years. One thing I can say is that it will be spectacular and definitely something that all involved can be proud of."
So when anybody asks 'how do you get more than 160 ships into the Solent?' the answer will surely be �?call Iain Doran!
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