DPDU armoured vest : Sub Lieutenant J Flood, RAN Clearance Diving Team 3

Armoured vest in 2003 type Disruptive Pattern Desert Uniform (DPDU) fabric as used in Iraq. The vest has a strap over each shoulder, that on the right having a brass press stud covering a Velcro quick release tab. The front section of the vest has a sewn-in nylon webbing waist belt with Fastex clips at either end, which attach to elasticised receivers on the rear section. Each section has a 30 x 25 cm central pocket, with a Velcro closure, designed to hold Kevlar panels protecting the vital organs. The Kevlar ballistic panels have been removed from the pockets. There are narrow nylon webbing reinforcement strips sewn vertically over the shoulders, and wider strips horizontally across both central pockets, and around the hips, stitched at regular intervals to form suspension loops. The inner face of both front and rear panels has a full-width Velcro strip permitting access to the interior, and allowing further ballistic or weather protective material to be inserted. A white fabric panel sewn inside the left rear panel is printed in black with manufacturer's and care details, and the name 'FLOOD' is written in black felt marker inside the neck opening on both front and rear panels.

Issued to Sub Lieutenant Jai Flood, a member of Royal Australian Navy Clearance Diving Team Three. AUSCDT THREE was deployed in support of Operation Falconer in February 2003. In early March, they took up residence at the Kuwait Naval Base on the coast not far from Kuwait city, where they engaged in equipment preparation and training, and on the morning of 24 March, they crossed the border into Iraq. Headquarters and accommodation were established at the old port of Umm Qasr where AUSCDT THREE divers quickly located a sunken minelayer with four live mines onboard. The team also participated in the clearing of ordinance from within the town itself. Umm Qasr was declared open on 9 April, and AUSCDT THREE immediately moved twenty kilometres further north, to the port of Khawr Az Zubayr. This port was also cleared in conjunction with other coalition dive teams, and explosive ordnance disposal patrols on the Al Faw peninsula were undertaken.