Operation Restore Hope T-Shirt : Chief Petty Officer Signals Yeoman (CPOSY) D J Perryman, HMAS Tobruk (II)

Khaki cotton T-shirt printed on the front in blue and red, 'OPERATION RESTORE HOPE SOMALIA 1993'. The advertising logo of 'KILMANJARO MOUNTAIN SPRING WATER', showing an image of the mountain, is printed in blue, green and red on the back.

T-shirt purchased by Duncan John Perryman, RAN, while serving in Somalia in HMAS Tobruk. The shirts were produced by the Australian manager of the Kilimanjaro Mineral Springs water company, a Kenyan firm who supplied drinking water to the troops in neighbouring Somalia. UNOSOM II (United Nations Operation in Somalia) was the second phase of the United Nations intervention in Somalia. It ran from March 1993 until March 1995. UNOSOM II carried on from the US-controlled (but UN sanctioned) UNITAF, which had in turn taken over from the UNOSOM I mission.

All three of these interventions were aimed at creating a secure enough environment for humanitarian operations to be carried out in the increasingly lawless and famine-struck country. The RAN played an important part in the UNOSOM deployment, transporting the battalion group equipment, vehicles, and some troops, to Somalia on board the training ship HMAS Jervis Bay and the heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk. Tobruk subsequently remained in the area providing logistic support to the Australians and UNITAF, and conducted surveillance off the Somali coast. Its helicopter was used in ship-to-shore transport of personnel. Tobruk was also used by land forces for rest and recreation.