Deputy Fleet Commander Commodore Ray Leggatt was recently awarded a Federation Star to acknowledge his enormous contribution to maintaining Australia’s security over four decades.
Commodore Leggatt’s responsibilities have ranged from fighter controller in the destroyer HMAS Brisbane during the first Gulf War, to command of the guided missile frigate HMAS Canberra and the warfare training base HMAS Watson.
He was awarded the Conspicuous Service Cross in 2008 and made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2014.
His high-profile representative roles have included Defence Attaché in southern Europe and leading the Australian delegation at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in London in 2022.
Commodore Leggatt’s Navy career began hundreds of kilometres from the sea after a chance meeting with a Navy recruiter in the regional hub of Dubbo in western NSW.
“I was a country kid and grew up on a sheep station between Bourke and Cobar,” Commodore Leggatt said.
The property was so remote that his primary school education was conducted via radio through the innovative School of the Air.
He attended high school in person in Dubbo and during this time encountered a Navy recruiting van staffed by an enthusiastic petty officer.
Commodore Leggatt said the recruiter convinced him that “Navy was the coolest job in the world”.
He joined Navy in 1983 and completed junior officer training.
“What was pretty incredible was within three years of that timeframe I was a qualified officer of the watch in Canberra going through the Malacca Straits at 24 knots at night,” Commodore Leggatt said.
His Federation Star was awarded by Commander Australian Fleet Rear Admiral Chris Smith, who also grew up in western NSW.
“I lived in the little town of Trangie, which is 72km west of Dubbo. Dubbo was the big smoke as we saw it,” Rear Admiral Smith said.
He noted Fleet Command is currently commanded by “a couple of country kids from nowhere near the water”.
