An honour for a gentleman
Lieutenant Jan Peterson is a reluctant recipient of the Distinguished Service Decoration recently announced in the New Year’s Honours list. Reluctant, he says, because he could not have achieved what he did without the help and support of, not only the team in the Sinai, but also his wife and close family back home.
Jan was awarded for his work as acting LT Commander and Force Engineer Officer with the Multi-National Force and Observers Mission (MFO). He arrived in May 2017 during the MFO’s biggest restructure and modernisation programme in its 36 year history. The volume of engineering projects had increased from up to 10 a year to 77 annually and the main Camp was moving 307kms south to Sharm el Sheik requiring the relocation of 500 staff, stores, equipment and vehicles. North Camp is located in a high risk area. Not far from North Camp, in November 2017, militants launched an attack on the Al-Rawda mosque in the town of Bir al-Abed during Friday prayers, killing 305 people.
Jan was a central figure in the planning, coordination and delivery of many of the major infrastructure projects, which included the South Camp Headquarters Building, cold storage facility and warehouse, security perimeter fence and a new vehicle maintenance facility. He led the design, planning and resource coordination for the construction of four Remote Sites for Observer Force personnel, which included accommodation, communal facilities and protection. The site on Tiran Island was particularly challenging, requiring delivery of construction material via more than 350 underslung loads by Black Hawk helicopter. His relationship-building, particularly with Egyptian contractors, enabled him to deliver projects to schedule despite ambitious timelines.
Jan says he and his team, particularly the local project engineers, worked hard to make sure they had good relationships with the contractors. “Being able to understand and cut through some of the cultural issues and just treating them fairly was my approach as much as possible. Safety was one challenge. There are no real health and safety regulations there but using a practical and coaching approach went a long way. Sometimes it felt that just by spending the time to listen to and understand them, you could ask more of them. Agreeing sensible timelines with Command was also helpful.”
And while the working conditions were a challenge, he says he learnt a lot. “I felt very proud to work with two awesome Kiwi contingents and hundreds of people from a wide range of nations. I got to see parts of the world I would not otherwise have seen and I have some great memories from my year there.
LTCOL Justin Putze, who nominated Jan, said: “(He) is one of the most professional, hardworking and charismatic officers that I have ever had the privilege to work with. His passion for life, his family, his desire to win and ability to befriend anyone he met, made him one of the most recognisable characters in the MFO. His performance over the duration of his tour was outstanding and he totally deserved to be recognised for his achievements.”
There was also a team back home deserving of the recognition, Jan says. “My wife Karen did all the hard work back home being solo Mum to our three kids. Support from my Mum and Mother in Law also means any awards just feel a little bit selfish. I did work hard but I think just as hard as many others that I deployed with.”
