Cairns Lieutenant Commander Kimberley Healy celebrates 20 years in navy at Pearl Harbour

A Cairns Lieutenant Commander has celebrated a major milestone in her service while deployed in Battleship Row at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii.

Lieutenant Commander Kimberley Healy, Principle Warfare Officer from Sea Combat Command alongside New Zealand navy Lieutenant Commander Elton Drylie aboard HMNZS Aotearoa during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Photo: Supplied

A Cairns local Lieutenant Commander has celebrated a major milestone in her service while deployed in Battleship Row at Pearl Harbour.

Lieutenant Commander Kimberley Healy marked 20 years in the Royal Australian Navy as she took part in Exercise Rim of the Pacific out of the US Pacific Base in Hawaii.

LCDR Healy was one of more than 300 Australians taking part in the biennial international military exercise conducted with the US Pacific Fleet.

She said it was great to celebrate the milestone together with friends and colleagues from the US and New Zealand.

“It’s great to see familiar faces and reconnect after years apart,” she said.

”In some ways if feels like no time at all has passed, we just picked up where we left

off.”

It is LCDR Healy’s second RIMPAC.

The principal warfare officer was at RIMPAC in 2016, serving on HMAS Ballarat.

“Being on an international exercise on the day I celebrate my 20th anniversary in the

Navy reaffirms my decision to join,” she said.

“I never thought I would be here 20 years later with still so much yet to experience.

The old adage was, “Join the navy, See the World,” and for me this has absolutely

rung true.”

Lieutenant Commander Kimberley Healy, Principle Warfare Officer from Sea Combat Command alongside New Zealand navy Lieutenant Commander Elton Drylie aboard HMNZS Aotearoa during Exercise Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2024, at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. Photo: Supplied

LCDR Healy grew up in Cairns and still calls the Far North home with her two teenage

children.

The highlight of LCDR Healy’s career thus far has been serving as Commanding

Officer of the Armidale Class Patrol Boat HMAS Bathurst from 2021-23 after serving

on the newly commissioned ship as a midshipman in 2006.

“When the signal came out announcing me as CO Bathurst –

that was a full circle moment for me,” Lieutenant Healy said.

“To have served on her as a midshipman and then to return 15 years later as her

Captain was pretty awesome.

“In 2021, it was post-Covid and we took the ship on deployment to Singapore.

Two-thirds of the Ship’s company had not been off the Australian station so it was exciting

to take the ship and her crew into international waters, conduct a crossing the line

ceremony and pay a port visit to our friends and neighbours in Singapore.

“Being CO of a ship is truly the time you get to cement your leadership and demonstrate all the training you’ve undertaken over many years.”

LCDR Healy has also served on HMA Ships Warramunga, Arunta and achieved her Bridge Warfare Certificate on HMAS Adelaide in 2007.

Originally published as Cairns Lieutenant Commander Kimberley Healy celebrates 20 years in navy at Pearl Harbour