Warrant Officer Class 2 Rob Allen has been awarded the Distinguished Service Decoration for his response to two very different emergencies in Vanuatu.
Photo: Supplied / NZDF
A New Zealand Army engineer, honoured for his emergency response work in Vanuatu, says the award reflects the efforts of an entire community banding together to save lives.
Warrant Officer Class 2 Rob Allen was awarded the New Zealand Distinguished Service Decoration (DSD) in this years King’s Birthday Honours for his leadership during a plane crash and a deadly earthquake in Vanuatu.
Allen has been seconded to the Vanuatu Mobile Force Engineer Squadron since 2023.
For the Nelson-born engineer, the award was totally unexpected.
“A little bit of a shock to be fair. Like most soldiers, I’m not great with getting awards,” he said. “But I was grateful, just a bit humbled I suppose. It validates that I’m working in well with the soldiers over here and together we’re doing a good job.”
In July 2024, Allen and a team of engineers responded quickly after a light aircraft crashed into a plantation near Bauerfield International Airport in the capital, Port Vila.
After collecting chainsaws and other equipment to help, they raced to the scene where emergency crews were already treating the injured.
His team cleared a route through trees, bush and fences, allowing ambulances to reach the wreckage. They then provided muscle power to pull the ambulances through boggy areas.
The collaborative response left a lasting impression on him.
“That has been the most rewarding piece for all of us. With plenty of doom and gloom in the world, when people are in need, then people all band together to go in and help.”
Vanuatu Mobile Force engineers cut through a plantation to allow emergency services to get to a crashed light plane in 2024.
Photo: Supplied / NZDF
Five months later, Allen found himself at the centre of an even bigger emergency, when a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck.
He was in the middle of repairing a padlock during lunchbreak when he was knocked to the ground.
“It was a big, big hit, felt like a train hit me outside of the building … and then I saw everyone else heading outside, so I ran outside as well and there was a second, it was like a big shunt, chucked me to the ground, and then I just sort of started realising what had happened.”
After confirming his wife and two children were safe, Allen launched into the response efforts.
“There was a tsunami warning … so we were helping people to go up to higher ground, and while we were helping people, a guy came up to us and said, ‘look, there’s a building in town that has collapsed, and there’s some people trapped under there.”
His team collected gear and headed to the collapsed Billabong building, where survivors were heard calling out from beneath the rubble.
The moment the first survivor was pulled from the debris has been ingrained into Allen’s memories.
“One lady was out within about three hours. It was jubilation, everyone was clapping and cheering, and she was on a stretcher and [we] formed a human chain going down off the rubble down to the pro-medical vehicle. There was probably about 40 people on site all cherry and stuff.”
VMF personnel and emergency services work together in the aftermath of the December earthquake.
Photo: Supplied / NZDF
He said he was impressed by how Vanuatu’s people collaborated to respond to both the plane crash and the earthquake.
“They would have a natural disaster every two years, big cyclones every couple of years that cause horrific damage, and they are just incredibly resilient.”
“The people that do work here are strong people, strong confident people, and so when you get a bunch of strong confident people, if they can collaborate, they can get a lot of things done.”
Beyond emergency work, Allen has been overseeing community construction projects, including school classrooms, childcare centres and dormitories.
And after nearly three years in Vanuatu, Allen says the memories he will take home are priceless.
“Raising my children for three years on this beautiful island. Working, doing the community projects, and seeing how happy people are.
“The earthquake and the plane crash, that’s going to be significant as well to me, like actually getting in and saving some lives. So, yeah, memories are bountiful.”
