William Dennis Goodchild Hunt

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(born 8 May 1955 in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) served a full career in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

as an Ammunition Technician (AT) and Ammunition Technical Officer (ATO) and served in the UK (including Northern Ireland), mainland Europe as well as the Middle and Far East. A strong advocate of raising standards in the industry, William campaigns for the expansion of International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) to cover offshore UXO detection and clearance operations.

Career

Prior to commissioning, William Hunt attained the highest non-commissioned appointment of Conductor. Prominent posts within the military service were: * Senior Ammunition Technician British Army of the Rhine (1988–1990) * Senior Ammunition Technician

321 EOD 321 EOD & Search Squadron 11 EOD Regiment RLC is a unit of the British Army responsible for Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Search duties in Northern Ireland. The unit was previously titled 321 EOD Unit, then 321 EOD Company RAOC Royal Army Ordna ...

Squadron RAOC

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

(1990–1992) * Military Advisor to Royal Brunei Armed Forces (1992–1994) * Second-in-Command 521 EOD Squadron RLC (1994–1996) * Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (1996–1998) Throughout his military service, Hunt was primarily concerned with Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), including Improvised Explosive Device Disposal ( IEDD) in high-threat terrorist environments in Northern Ireland, Europe and the Middle East. On leaving the military in 1998 after 26 years service, he became a consultant to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

in the Balkans throughout the

Kosovo Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...

crisis, where he remained supporting several projects until 2002. In

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

, he designed, set up executed NATOs first

Partnership for Peace The Partnership for Peace (PfP; french: Partenariat pour la paix) is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) program aimed at creating trust between the member states of NATO and other states mostly in Europe, including post-Soviet states; ...

(PFP) Demilitarization Trust Fund project which successfully destroyed the country's entire stockpile of anti-personnel landmines. Over the period '02–09 Hunt was involved with the Sakhalin II integrated Oil and gas project in Far East Russia, advising on EOD and security issues. Hunt assisted BP with entry into the Rumaila oilfields 2010-2012 organizing EOD clearance and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) mitigation tasks. More recently he acted as Project Manager for the clearance of offshore remnants of war at Iraq's KAOOT and ABOT offshore oil terminals that were a legacy of the Iran Iraq and Gulf Wars.

Awards

In 1993, Hunt was appointed Member of the Most Excellent

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(MBE) for services to counter-terrorism specifically for the development of effective strategic and tactical countermeasures.Supplement to the London Gazette 53298 dated 10 May 1993 His achievements were again formally recognized in 2003 by Queen Elizabeth and the

Duke of Edinburgh Duke of Edinburgh, named after the city of Edinburgh in Scotland, was a substantive title that has been created three times since 1726 for members of the British royal family. It does not include any territorial landholdings and does not produc ...

at a special reception at

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

in November 2003. The reception was to mark the contribution of 'Pioneers to the Life of the Nation'. He has also been decorated by the governments of the United Kingdom, HM The Sultan of Brunei and the General Staff of

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt, William D. G. 1955 births Living people Members of the Order of the British Empire Royal Army Ordnance Corps soldiers Royal Army Ordnance Corps officers Bomb disposal personnel Military personnel from Essex People from Essex 20th-century British Army personnel