Private Adam Friend - East Timor

"I think we are making a difference here, in the past three months we have seen more people on the streets, new shops opening and increased levels of activity in the city."

When Blenheim man Adam Friend told the Army he would like to serve as a peacekeeper in the Solomon Islands, they sent him to Dili, Timor Leste. But he doesn’t mind. In fact, he is glad.

Adam, who has a PhD in viticulture, works as a viticulture researcher but also has a part-time job as a soldier in the Army Reserve of the New Zealand Army. When the Army sought volunteers for a three-month deployment to the Solomon Islands Adam added his name to the list.

Adam is a private soldier in the 2nd Canterbury Nelson Marlborough and West Coast Battalion Group and his normal work is contract based so he had the employment flexibility he needed to be able to undertake pre-deployment training and the deployment itself.

The Army has been sending Reserve soldiers to the Solomon Islands for two years and Adam had already begun training to deploy to the Solomon Islands when he was asked if he would rather go to Timor Leste with a large group of regular force soldiers instead of going to the Solomon Islands with his fellow Army Reserve soldiers.

Adam jumped at the chance despite some initial concerns that his skills levels may not match those of professional, full time soldiers.

"Going into the pre-deployment training I was very conscious of my skill levels and experience. The advice everyone gave me was to be the grey man and keep a low profile until people knew who I was and I had fitted in. I kept my head down and focused on the training which was great and gave us all we needed to know for the deployment here.

"In fact I have found the guys to be great, integrating with the company was easy and everyone has been really friendly and helpful.

"I think we are making a difference here, in the past three months we have seen more people on the streets, new shops opening and increased levels of activity in the city.

"What you notice the most about being away from New Zealand is the lack of basic freedoms that mean you can't go out, you can't do what you want to, when you want to, but it is a relatively short deployment so that is not a major concern," he says.