FORMER Tamworth man, Captain Jason Sears of the Royal Australian Navy, spoke about what Anzac means to him as the guest speaker at the main Anzac Day service.
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Captain Sears moved to Tamworth in Year 3 where he attended Hillvue Public School then completed high school at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School.
He is serving as the director of international logistics at Joint Logistic Command where he negotiates regional treaties and arrangements with different countries.
Captain Sears is also the chair of the Australian and New Zealand working group and the United National Logistics Working Group.
“My current role is very different to my navy focus because I deal with the army and air force as well,” he said.
“The navy has allowed me to do a lot of things I never would’ve been able to do. For instance, I studied supply chain management at Harvard Business College.”
He got a scholarship with the Royal Australian Navy from high school to attend the Australian Defence Force Academy in its first year in 1986.
Captain Sears spent four years at ADFA including an honours years in history.
He has since served as a deputy supply officer on the HMAS Torrens and HMAS Adelaide then became the Chief of Navy’s speech writer.
Captain Sears then completed a PhD in the social history of the Royal Australian Navy.
He was then posted to Cairns as the deputy supply officer for the patrol boat base supporting Bougainville then wrote two chapters of the Oxford History of the RAN to mark the Centenary of Federation.
When serving on the HMAS Arunta, he helped mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Korean War helping to look after the veterans at the services.
Since then, he has been posted to Western Australia and Washington, on the HMAS Kanimbla and assisted with Operation Padang Assist after the earthquake in the region.
Captain Sears was then the commanding officer at HMAS Waterhen in Sydney and the fleet supply officer for 12 months and got his promotion to Captain at the start of 2013 and was posted to Canberra to his current role.
In his Anzac Day address, he linked the 100th year since the start of World War I with his personal experiences and what Anzac has come to mean to him.
He said he had visited many memorials around the world and the story of his family’s service, including that of his grandfather and great uncle, was similar to many of those in the audience.
Captain Sears wore his grandfather, Robert Gaynor’s, medals yesterday.
He spoke about the sacrifice of Anzac Day including that of the men and their families – that all service families make – and the sacrifice of those in Afghanistan.
After his Tamworth duties, Captain Sears travelled to Manilla, representing the Chief of Navy, to present a unit citation for the HMAS Yarra to Janine Avery whose father served on the ship.
