RIP Dave Stafford Finney – 3 February 2019
Dave Stafford Finney, a recently retired Royal Australian Navy Petty Officer – is how he described himself when he allowed CONTACT to re-publish some of his writing – lost his battle with ‘the black dog’ yesterday.
It was obvious from his writings that Dave was a troubled soul doing it tough.
His stories were powerful and very-well written, and touched a lot of people here on CONTACT and on his own blog.
He obviously wasn’t shy about baring his soul to the world, but, in the end, ‘getting it off his chest’ wasn’t enough.
Dave’s passing is a shock and so very very sad. But he is at peace now.
Dave Stafford Finney will obviously be missed by his many family and friends – he was an outgoing, loving guy, evidenced by the many and heartfelt tributes on his Facebook page.
He’ll also be missed by the characters he so missed after leaving the Navy…
“I’ll miss dearly not just the people I know personally, but I will also miss the characters that were on every single deployment. I’ll miss the person that was never around when there was work to be done. I miss the sailor that just seemed to sleep anywhere, everywhere, almost as if they could sleep 20 hours a day. I’ll miss the sailor with the filthy mind and all the dirty jokes (not always a bloke). I’ll miss the guy that always fell in love – as in head-over-heels in love – with, in the early days it might have been a girl back home or someone he met in a port visit to Manilla. As times changed, he fell in love with the night cook, or one of the girls on his watch. I’ll miss the guy that seemed to only live on cigarettes, Samboy chips and soft-drink. No one knew how he was alive, but he was. I’ll miss the guy who somehow got injured all the time. He always had stiches or was in a cast. I’ll miss the charismatic guy that always smiled, no matter how tough things got. Most of all I’ll miss how we always had each other’s back, how within days of knowing each other we had a fierce loyalty. We were shipmates, we taught each other, supported each other, and sometimes fought each other – but we still had each other’s backs”.
And tonight, Dave Stafford Finney you are missed. Rest in Peace.
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A GoFundMe page has been launched to raise funds for Dave’s grieving family.
- Dave will be remembered with a service at Harrison’s funeral home, Golden Grove Road, Ridgehaven, South Australia at 2pm on Monday 18 February 2019, followed by a short service at Golden Grove cemetery.
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There was also another sailor who suicided recently after being given the same shrug off treatment by our wonderful ‘senior service’. I believe he served over a decade (rating I dont know) and was assigned to driving a desk prior to his discharge. He was reported to be 35yo at the time and was no doubt in the same predicament as Dave was. However asides from the media source below, there was next to zero coverage on the matter!
I couldn’t access the article online as they stonewall you if your not an active subscriber.
Courier Mail, Jun 12 2019
Poor leadership, self interest and cronyism is now entrenched. Concern for the welfare of your people is seen as a weakness or waste of time. Greater scrutiny needs to be placed on Senior leadership as they rarely display the signature behaviours they demand from their troops. Fair seas and following winds Dave.
The so called 5 Navy values (Honour, Honesty blah blah) are nothing more than corporate buzzwords now. Even back when I was in 10-15 yrs ago I thought the whole thing was total BS. Thing I hated was too many senior sailors and officers throwing everyone under the bus to get what they wanted out of the deal. The worst offenders were the senior ranking lesbians.
How can you expect the underling to adhere to them when the likes of the very left leaning top brass (public servants in uniform) are so self invested giving promotions away to their girlfriends, principle donators to the corrupted White Ribbon foundation, getting men to paint their fingernails and letting Islamic militant sympathizers get away with racial slurs and treason against her own shipmates, only to be rewarded with free trips to football matches.
If this were any organization in the free enterprise, it would have been sunk years ago.
As for David, he was the victim of the very own service that he dedicated himself to. They lifted him up so high, only to throw him down crashing into pieces. Except they weren’t willing to pick up the pieces, but just dust it aside.
After spending my life in the Navy the government and their Public Servant tyrants are in the process of breaking me. Having our backs? I have knives in mine, Absolutely disgraceful. Morrisons new era of respect is a big fat lie.
Sad day indeed.
We need the rest of society to “have our backs” when it comes to servicemen/women. Government especially.
RIP Dave, and condolences to your loved ones.