Dispatches from Operation HIGHMAST No. 3 – Into the Pacific

Operation HIGHMAST is now in its central phase, the very heart of the operational plan: multinational strike group operations in the Indo-Pacific. We sailed from Oman to Singapore, then Singapore to Darwin, taking us across the Equator with the expected visit from King Neptune and his court of oddities. Of a strike group personnel numbering more than 2,500, including Australians and New Zealanders, approximately 70% had nevertheless never crossed the line before. Most were dunked in the time honoured fashion – the only remaining authorised initiation ceremony in the UK Armed Forces. The group…