A year as Flag Lieutenant
The old line, “join the Navy, see the world”, doesn’t usually involve business-class travel.
It does for the Chief of Navy’s Flag Lieutenant, Lieutenant Caitlin Wiseman. She’s just finished a posting as “Flags”, the personal staff officer for the Rear Admiral. “From the outside, it might look glamorous,” she says. “But the work never stops.”
LT Wiseman says the role is an amazing development opportunity for a junior officer, and a chance to see the strategic workings of the New Zealand Defence Force at a senior level.
She’s one of five who make up Rear Admiral David Proctor’s team, in a role that typically runs for 12 months. “The Flag Lieutenant is the most involved with the Chief of Navy. We travel with him, the majority of the time.”
She holds the workphone, and is the first point of call for enquiries to the Rear Admiral. “The support for the Chief of Navy is 24/7. People could call at any time, from anywhere. I’m the main insulator, I deal with the small issues. I handle the logistics, the travel. There is a lot of travel, but the work keeps going whether you are in New Zealand or overseas. You see a lot of hotel rooms, conference centres, and there’s not a lot of time to explore. You’re still answering phone calls.”
The Chief of Navy will ask her opinion on an hourly basis, she says.
“The team is a personal sounding board, to bounce ideas, and it took me a while to get used to that. But the reason he’s asking is because he genuinely wants to know what my peer group would think of an idea. He values my opinion, and we do it openly, without any kind of perception that it’s a Lieutenant talking to an Admiral. That can be daunting at the start.”
LT Wiseman, a marine engineer officer, is from Ngatea, south of Thames. She was doing an engineering degree at Canterbury University when she went to a Defence recruiting expo. “It seemed like a good career for an engineer, to travel and have a job, plus do something good for the country. As a second-year, it was too good an opportunity to turn down.” After graduating as an officer in 2013, the Navy paid for her to complete her degree.
She deployed early in her career, going to the Gulf with HMNZS TE MANA and experiencing a Southern Ocean mission on HMNZS WELLINGTON. She qualified as a Marine Engineer Officer and was posted to HMNZS TE KAHA for a six-month Pacific and South-East Asia deployment.
She hadn’t thought about doing a Flags posting before this. “There’s not many jobs in the Navy, as a junior officer, where you can have such an influence on the organisation, and understand how the New Zealand Defence Force works. That’s what attracted me to the role.”
She enjoys the valuable contacts she has made. “I meet other Flag Lieutenants from around the world, all doing the same job as me. It’s great engagement.”
Her advice to others is to put your name forward. “It’s such a good opportunity for a Lieutenant. The relationships I’ve made will be really beneficial for my career. And Naval Staff in Wellington is a fantastic place to work.”
