Part of the Dolphin club

by Bonnie Collings
Not everyone can say they've jumped off a naval ship and into the shark-filled open ocean. Even fewer people can say they've worn the special Dolphin badge reserved only for qualified submariner.
Local Royal Australian Navy veteran Heidi Burke can say she's done both.
In her 15-year naval career, Heidi worked on naval ships and submarines as a communication and information system sailor
She shared the story of her naval service as part of "My Service, My Story - RAN", the collaborative podcast series between The Gazette and the Warragul RSL.
Heidi enlisted in the navy two days after her 18th birthday, encouraged by her sister's positive experience in the army.
"I thought the army probably wasn't going to be a good fit for me, but I thought the navy might be something to try out," Heidi said.

"I felt like I didn't really know what I wanted to do, and I thought that joining the navy for six years or so would be a good thing to do while I worked it all out."

Heidi joined the Royal Australian Navy on November 26, 2001.
"I remember going into the recruitment office in Brisbane and they did a bit of an enlistment ceremony," Heidi said. "My dad was there and a couple of my close girlfriends from school. And then it all became a bit of a blur."
She recalled being put on a plane to Melbourne, then on a bus to HMAS Cerberus where her three-month recruit school training began.
Following the initial training, Heidi began her training as a communication and information system sailor.
"My training was a little bit unusual for the time, they did a bit of an experiment where they decided to send the navy communicators to the Defence Force School of Signals at Simpson Barracks and do a tri-service course with the air force, army and navy," Heidi said.
After the training course, Heidi returned to HMAS Cerberus for the remainder of her navy specific communications training, before being posted to a shore communications establishment in Canberra while she waited for a posting at sea.
The news came about a year later; she was heading to HMAS Anzac in Western Australia.
During her year and a half posting on HMAS Anzac, Heidi travelled around Australia and was deployed to southeast Asia.
In addition to her role as a communicator, Heidi had an interesting role in damage control exercises.
"Damage control exercises (covered) all manner of things, fires, floods, and a fun one that I liked was men overboard," she said.
"They used to throw this dummy called Oscar over the side, and then the officers on the bridge would navigate the ship in a way that was appropriate so that they could recover that man overboard," Heidi explained.
"They'd either do that by boat, or they'd do it by swimmer. The swimmer was one of my roles."
While the swimmer role was typically filled by a bosun sailor on HMAS Anzac, the proximity of the COMSEN (communications centre) where Heidi worked to where the wetsuits were kept, and her Queenslander adeptness in the water, meant she was a good fit for the role.
"A lot of bosons didn't want to do it because they were worried about sharks, so everyone was pretty happy for me to volunteer!"
"If they called man overboard – recover by swimmer when I was in the COMSEN, I'd quickly run out and I'd get my wetsuit on, get a flotation buoy, my fins and I'd go out to the place where I'd jump off, attached to a rope, and swim out."
"There'd be a gunner up on the bridge with a rifle, who was supposed to shoot the sharks in case they got you. I never saw a shark, but I'm sure they were there."
After serving on HMAS Anzac, Heidi traded being above the water for being below it.
"Out of all the things (I did) in the navy, becoming a submariner was the most difficult for me and the most important," Heidi said.
Heidi began her submarine training in January 2005.
She began with classroom training about the submarine's mechanical and electrical systems, before moving into communications specific training and then submarine escape training.
"We did our courses at the school, but that doesn't make you a submariner," she said.
The next step was "part three training" - learning all the systems of the submarine in addition to learning what her day-to-day role entailed. At the end of her training, Heidi had to complete assessed walk-throughs of the submarine.
The journey didn't end there though.
"If you pass all of those (walk-throughs), then you have to do a board. You have the executive officer, electrical engineer and the mechanical engineer of the submarine sit there and then grill you about all the mechanical aspects of the submarine, because you're a submariner first," Heidi said.
"At the end of that process, that's when you get awarded your Dolphins."
Heidi served as a communicator on HMAS Rankin and HMAS Farncomb.
Working on submarines was the first time in her navy career where Heidi noticed a difference between the number of men and women working around her.
"Women only started working on submarines in Australia in the late 90s, early 2000s, and they never have any more than six women because they would put you all in the same cabin," Heidi said.
Heidi said the six or none condition lead to restricted career progression for women at the time.
"There could be eight or 10 women who wanted to go to sea, or they might only have four women that could go to sea - but if they couldn't fill those six beds, there'd be no women. They'd run the boat stag," Heidi said.
"And if you had a female officer - who should have been in better accommodation consistent with her rank – she was still down in the girl's cabin."
"They've progressed from there now and now they mix mess which is good for the career progression of women," she said.
Heidi left the navy in 2016. Looking back, she said getting her Dolphins was her proudest memory.
"I got to do lots of different things in the navy, but I honestly think getting my Dolphins was my proudest moment," Heidi said.
"I worked hard for it and once you get them, you're kind of part of a little, global club for all the submariners."