Lieutenant Dave Haw Royal Navy – Citation

Understanding that ethos builds a sense of purpose and loyalty, which enables character development and leadership to thrive, Lt Dave Haw has immersed himself in driving RN ethos, particularly in Junior Officers, during his time at HMS Collingwood.

As the course manager for the Weapon Engineering (WE) System Engineering and Management Course, he has been responsible for the Command, Leadership and Management (CLM) development of every junior WE Officer emerging from Britannia Royal Naval College over the last 28 months. Taking proactive ownership of that responsibility and those under his charge, he has set robust standards and, more critically, upheld them. But he also been a compassionate and pragmatic Divisional Officer to that group, which can exceed 60 in number at any given time. Enabling their success whilst safeguarding standards, he has applied coaching and mentoring to individuals, engaging on their behalf across RN stakeholders to maximise their development opportunities and, when interventions have not been successful, processed warnings and dismissal with sound moral courage.

In addition, he has led 2 Op Trafalgar’s (a weekend leadership exercise that brings over 100 Phase 2 Warfare and WE Officers and Ratings together to develop CLM) and devoted his time to support others when they have taken the lead. His enthusiastic engagement with this has improved the conduct of these exercises, the enjoyment of the participants and better enabled it to identify strengths and weaknesses in students so that they could be supported, if needed, during future training. The improvements he has made have received accolades from Capt MWS and have been entrenched to enable continued success into the future. Furthermore, he has also proactively supported Op Nile (a Phase 2 adventurous training weekend) on several occasions, leading students on walking activities in the local area. He believes in the purpose of these events and strives to gain the most from the opportunities they present; he cares deeply that CLM and the broader RN ethos pillars of Courage, Commitment, Discipline, Respect, Integrity and Loyalty are developed and maintained at every possible juncture.

Finally, Lt Haw understands that Mess life presents a significant opportunity to bring serving personnel, veterans and their families together to generate lasting team spirit and unify purpose. He identified that the Officers’ Mess at HMS Collingwood had not fulfilled its potential over recent years in that so he volunteered to take on Socials Secretary to improve mess functions. During his tenure, he has transformed the number, variety and quality of events at the Wardroom increasing attendance at events significantly. In doing so, serving personnel, past and present and friends and family are now much more engaged with the Mess, which delivers greater support, morale and purpose to those currently serving. Specifically, he organised the inaugural WE Officers and Warrant Officers Dinner, attended by over 150 personnel and, by doing so, has re-invigorated the re-building of WE Branch ethos.

Haw’s contribution to building ethos and the development of CLM has been significant during his time at MWS and he is worthy of this recognition.