Life in the navy has begun on an upward swell for former Maitland Grossmann High School student Charlotte Weatherall.
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The midshipman received the Australian Naval Institute Prize from Governor General Peter Cosgrove last month when she graduated from the new entry officer’s course.
The prize is awarded to the graduate who demonstrates the most outstanding officer-like qualities, exhibits exceptional leadership, exerts peerless good influence, and demonstrates outstanding dedication to the naval values of honour, honesty, courage, integrity and loyalty.
It’s quite a journey since Charlotte was in Spain just 18 months ago on a long-term Rotary study and cultural exchange.
Skilled in physics and dedicated to her maths grades, the plan all along was to pursue electrical engineering in the defence force.
“I had already signed up and paid for the exchange when I was accepted to ADFA [Australian Defence Force Academy] in 2012,” she said.
“And you can’t defer.”
But she put it on hold.
“I felt like ADFA would always be there, but the exchange wouldn’t,” she said.
In the hills outside Madrid, in a place similar in size to Maitland, Charlotte stayed with four host families. Most of the other exchange students were from the United States, where Spanish is a school staple unlike in Australia.
“I had just turned 19,” she said.
“Most of all it teaches you resilience [but], as hard as [Spanish] is, you can’t give up.”
For someone as reluctant as Charlotte to take the easy path in life, Spain was a natural choice.
She said she didn’t want to go to a country similar to Australia.
“I wanted something quite different,” Charlotte said.
“There were some cultural surprises, but you just take it on the chin.
“I didn’t stay with a lot of religious families. But there were whole-town religious ceremonies.
“It’s a historical festival and it’s nice they continue on with it.”
The exchange was rewarding, if difficult to return from.
“That extra year gave me the added maturity and time to figure out the way things work and what people expect of you,” Charlotte said.
To regain a place at ADFA Charlotte enrolled in a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Wollongong.
“I found it really hard to sit down again and get into study,” she said.
“[But] it kind of showed me what my degree at ADFA would be like.”
With the first year of university under her belt, Charlotte started the new entry officer’s course at HMAS Creswell on the NSW South Coast this year.
The 21-year-old surrendered her mobile phone on her first day and relinquished all contact with her family for what proved to be a tough first week.
The participants rose at 5am for day after day of drills that ended with lights out at 10pm.
The combination of basic military training and leadership workshops proved gruelling.
“The first four weeks I don’t even remember,” Charlotte said. “It was a lot of ‘this hour we walk, this hour we talk’, and ‘this is how we fold our socks’.
“I liked it; I like discipline and doing things to the best of my ability.”
The next six weeks included history lessons, warfare strategy and rifle firing.
The final assessment was a mock humanitarian crisis where Charlotte shone.
On the second day of this drill, which included a simulated helicopter crash, Charlotte was put in charge for the night watch.
“From then on I was kind of in charge for the rest of the week,” she said.
By the final day she was second-in-charge of more than 100 people.
To what does she attribute this ability? Partly, it’s Girl Guides.
“Guides is teaching us life skills, but there’s a big focus on leadership through various courses,” she said.
Charlotte’s graduation as an officer followed Naval tradition.
“We paraded in front of the Governor General for him to inspect us,” she said.
“When he presented the prize he asked me how my family and friends were after the flood. He then wished me every success in the future.”