Monique
…usually, one might use a title like this to remember a member of the old and bold who has passed on…Major Monique Brown of Waiouru died suddenly in Wellington on 14 February…although quite definitely bold she equally definitely wasn’t that old, certainly nowhere close to be the topic of an obituary.
Monique and her whanau were welcomed onto the Army Marae on their arrival from Wellington yesterday afternoon and a church service will be held at the marae this evening at 7pm. She will be buried with full military honours commencing with a service at the National Army Marae- Rongomaraeroa o Nga hau e Wha Marae- Waiouru on Friday at 1100. The service will be followed by a burial at the Waiouru Cemetery. Dress for military personnel attending the tangi is Dress 1A, HMR. Light refreshments will be available at the WO & SNCOs’ Mess at the completion of the formalities.
Wow…Monique…gone just like that…Monique was a Kiwi who’d joined the Aussie Army (OK, no one’s perfect!!) and went to the Australian Defence Force Academy at Duntroon, graduating near the top of her class. I first met her int eh mid-90s just after she’d seen the light, come home and joined our own Army. At the time I was a fresh-as lieutenant and Monique was the ‘go-to’ captain in Army Headquarters. The whole time I knew her she was always bubbly and happy but damn professional as well – I suspect, although I never had occasion to find out personally, that ‘bubbly and happy’ could chnage very quickly if she felt that an individual was unreceptive to the ‘carrot’ approach…
One of the good things about a small army is that it’s easy to keep in touch with people and so Monique and I would bump into each other from time to time over the years. In 2007, she was posted up to Waiouru, ostensibly to work for me but I prefer to think if it as ‘with’ rather than ‘for’ – I was a newly minted major and she had some years seniority over me but never once saw fit to mention this but she managed to keep me on the straight and narrow and a jetted back and forth between my domestic responsibilities and those arising from CWID that year. Around this time, Monique wrote a book for children, a family story about what her granddad did in the war – she was always concerned that the boys would know their heritage – and I’m very glad now that I took the opportunity to get a copy then: it’s on a shlef in our library waiting for a time when the twins are a little older. I was quite sad when she moved out to occupy the new simulation centre that she had built in Waiouru: very flash with two indoor twelve lane weapon ranges and 24 station simulation facility…A year later, she got the posting that was nearest and dearest to her heart and that was the defacto ‘Mayor of Waiouru’, responsible for support services for the camp. Monique was all about support…supporting her family, her friends, her work colleagues and all those in her little dependency in the Central Plateau…
At the end of last year, Monique had been posted back to line logistic unit and would have been just getting her feet under that desk…I remember seeing a mention on Facebook that she was moving south late last year and said to her that we’d have to ‘do lunch or coffee or something’ since we were both back in the Manawatu…too slow and now Monique’s made one last trip back home to Waiouru…
OK…LISTEN UP, FRIENDS…NO ONE ELSE IS TO DIE THIS YEAR – THAT”S AN ORDER!!!!!
The World According to Me... 